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BELGIAN SOLDIERS BEHIND THE ENTRENCHMENT 
ON THE ROAD TO MALINES 



Stories and Letters From 
the Trenches 



Compiled by 

F. B. OGILVIE 



Copyright 1915 by J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company 



New York 
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

57 Eose Street 






ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Gur thanks are due and are hereby tendered to 
Dr. Mary Merrit Crawford of Brooklyn, N. Y., for her 
letters regarding the Paris hospital patients, to the 
New York Times for the article, "Three Months in the 
Trenches/' by Bert Hall, and for other letters; and to 
the New York Sun and various other publications for 
the numerous items of intense human interest which 
help to make this collection an accurate record of 
conditions at the front in the colossal European War. 

THE PUBLISHERS 




3^V*^ 



MAR 27 1915 

^.Cl.A398212 












PEEFACE. 



LeMers received from soldiers in the field de- 
scribe many features of the various campaigns of 
the war, the descriptions coming from represen- 
tatives of widely differing classes of society. Un- 
like the rigid censorship imposed on the allied 
troopers by their official censors; the letters of 
Germans in the field show that wide liberty of ex- 
pression is allowed, with only the names of places, 
troop divisions, and commanders, and occasional- 
ly dates, deleted. 

At the front are many men of prominence in 
many walks of life. Some of the greatest pres- 
ent-day poets and novelists are in the field, and 
that, too, serving in humble capacities, taking 
their risks side by side with the men in the ranks 
or as non-commissioned officers and sharing the 
daily routine of the common soldier's life. Un- 
democratic as officialdom is in times of peace, and 
harsh as its discipline has been pictured in time 
of war, letters from notables at the front show a 
surprising spirit of democracy in the relations of 
high and low on the battlefield, in the trenches, 
and om the march. 

Tfee letters from the front include missives 
penned or scribbled by nobles and members of 
the royal families, high military officials, authors, 
Socialists, tradesmen, skilled workmen, and wri- 
ters who, in peace times, have been more expert 
witli tke farmhand's scythe or manure fork, or 
witl tie street cleaner's broom than iritlk tke pem 

3 



4 PREFACE 

that is supposedly miglitier, and certainly to them 
more unwieldy, than the sword. 

Nevertheless, even among the privates, it is ex- 
tremely rare that a letter shows illiteracy to any 
marked degree. In the letters written by high 
and low alike, there is to be noted a certain the- 
atrical consciousness of the stage on which they 
are now engaged in battle before the world. 



\ 



s« 



WAR STORIES. 



THEEE MONTHS IN THE TEENCHES. 



AMEEICAN WHO SEKVED WITH THE FKENCH FOKEIGK 
LEGION^ NOW AN AIKMAN, GIVES VIVID ACCOUNT 
OF * ^ DITCH '^ LIFE. 

Bert Hall, who wrote the article printed here- 
with, is an American, and has had experience hath 
as a racing automobile driver and an airman. At 
the beginning of the war he joined the French 
Foreign Legion, but was afterward transferred to 
the French Aviation Corps, 

By Beet Hali^. 

There was no hands-across-the-sea Lafayette 
stuff about us Americans who joined the Foreign 
Legion in Paris when the war broke out. "We just 
wanted to get right close and see some of the fun, 
and we didn't mind taking a few risks, as most of 
us had led a pretty rough sort of life as long as 
we could remember. 

For my part, auto racing — including one peach 
of a smash-up in a famous race — followed by three 
years of flying, had taken the edge off my capacity 
for thrills, but I thought I'd get a new line of ex- 
citement with the legion in a big war, and I reckon 
most of the other boys had much the same idea. 

We got a little excitement, though not much, but 

5 



6 WAB STORIES 

as f©r fuM — ^well, if I had to go througk it again 
I'd sooner attend my own funeral. As a aporting 
proposition, this war game is overrated. Alto- 
gether, I spent nearly three months in the trenches 
near Craonne, and, believe me, I was mighty glad 
when they transferred me (with Thaw and Bach, 
two other Americans who Ve done some flying) to 
the Ariation Corps, for all they wouldn't take us 
whem we volunteered at the start because we 
werea't Frenchmen, and have only done so now 
because they've lost such a lot of their owm men, 
which isn't a very encouraging reason. 

But anyway if the Germans do wing us, it's a 
decent, quick finish, and I for one prefer it to slow 
starvation or being frozen stiif in a stinking, mud- 
dy trench. Why, I tell you, when I got bounded 
and had to leave, most of the boys were so sick of 
life in the trenches that they used to walk about 
outside in the daytime almost hoping the Ger- 
mans would hit them — anything to break the mo- 
notony of the ceaseless rain and cold and hunger 
and dirt ! 

It wasn't so bad when we first got there, about 
the beginning of October, as the weather was 
warmer (though it had already begun to raim and 
has never stopped since), but we were almost. suf- 
focated by the stench from the thousands of 
corpses lying between the lines — the German 
trenches were about four hundred yards away — 
where it wasn't safe for either side to go out and 
bury them. They were French mostly, result of 
the first big offensive after the Marne victory^ 
and, believe me, that word just expresses it — they 
were the offensivest proposition in all my experi- 
ence. 

Weil, as I was saying, we reached the firiag line 
on Octol»«r 4, after marching up from Toulouse, 



/ 



WAR STORIES 7 

where they'd moved us from Rouen to finish our 
training. We went down there in a cattle truck at 
the end of August in a hurry, as they expected the 
Germans any minute ; the journey took sixty hours 
instead of ten, and was frightfully hot. That was 
our first experience of what service in the For- 
eign Legion really meant — just the sordidest, un- 
comfortablest road to glory ever trodden by 
American adventurers. 

After we'd been at Toulouse about a months 
thej incorporated about two hundred of us re- 
cruits — thirty Americans and the rest mostly 
Britishers, all of whom had seen some sort of 
service before — in the Second Regiment Etranger 
which had just come over from Africa on its way 
to the front. Tkey put us all together in one com- 
pany, which was something to be thankful for, as 
Pd hate to leave a cur dog among some of the 
old-timers — you never saw such a lot of scoun- 
drels. I'll bet a hundred dollars they have speci- 
mens of every sort of criminal in Europe, and, 
what's more, lots of them spoke German, though 
they claimed to have left seventeen hundred of 
the real Dutchies behind in Africa. Can you beat 
it? Going out to fight for France against the 
Kaiser among a lot of guys that looked and talked 
like a turn verein at St: Louis ! 

Why, one day Thaw and I captured a Dutchie 
in a wood where we were hunting squirrel — as a 
necessary addition to our diet — and, believe me, 
when we brought him into camp he must have 
thought he was at home, for they all began jab- 
bering German to him as friendly as possible, and 
every one was quite sad when he went off in a 
train with a lot of other prisoners bound for some 
fortress in the West of France. 

But that was only a detail, and now I'm telling 



8 WAR STORIES 

you about our arrival in the trenches. The last 
hundred miles we did in five days, which is some 
of a hurry; but none of the Americans fell out, 
though we were all mighty tired at the end of the 
last day's march. Worse still, that country had 
all been fought over, and there were no inhabi- 
tants left to give us food and drinks as we had 
had before at every resting place, which helped 
us greatly. Along the roadside lots of trees had 
been smashed by shell fire, and there were hun- 
dreds of graves with rough crosses or little flags 
to mark them, and every now and then we passed 
a broken auto or a dead horse lying in the gutter. 

At the end of the fifth day we got our first sam- 
ple of war — quite suddenly, without any warning, 
as we didn't know we were near the firing line. 
We had just entered a devastated village when 
there came a shrill whistling noise like when white 
hot iron is plunged into cold water, then a ter- 
rific bang as a shell burst about thirty yards in 
front of our columns, making a hole in the road 
about five feet deep and ten in diameter, and send- 
ing a hail of shrapnel in all directions. One big 
splinter hit a man in the second rank and took his 
head off — I think he was a Norwegian; anyway, 
that was our first casualty. No one else was in- 
jured. 

Our boys took their baptism of fire pretty 
coolly, though most of us jumped at the bang and 
ducked involuntarily to dodge the shrapnel, which, 
by the way, isn't very dangerous at more than 
thirty yards, though it does a lot of harm at 
shorter range. Personally, I wasn't as scared as 
I expected, and most of the others said the same. 
At first, one is too interested to be frightened, and 
by the time the novelty has worn off one has got- 



WAR STORIES 9 

ien fairly used to it all — at least that seemed to 
be our general opinion. 

There were no more shells after that one, and 
we continued our march till nightfall, when we 
-cjamped in an abandoned village. Next morning 
there were 100 big auto trucks ready to take us 
to a point about forty miles along the lines, and we 
clambered aboard them and set off at a good 
speed — all but twenty unlucky lads, who were left 
to pad the hoof as a guard for our mules and bag- 
gage. My pal, William Thaw, was among the 
number; he marched for thirteen hours practi- 
cally without a stop, and when he reached our 
camp he lay right down in the mud by the roadside 
and went straight off to sleep, though it was rain- 
ing like sixty and he was drenched to the skin. 
But he was all right again in the morning, though 
it was a man's job to wake him up. 

Next day we set oif before dawn, having re- 
ceived orders to take our place in the trenches 
about eight miles away. It soon got light, and 
after marching about half an hour we were un- 
lucky enough to be seen by a German aeroplane 
which signaled us to their batteries. The first 
shell burst near, the second nearer, the third right 
among us, killing nearly a dozen old-timers ; and 
we were forced to break ranks and take cover 
until nightfall, as they'd got the range and it 
would have been suicide to try and go on. Pretty 
good shooting that at five or six miles ' distance ! 

The French talk a lot about their artillery, but, 
believe me, the Dutchies are mighty fine gunners, 
especially with their cannon — even the very big- 
gest. 



li WAR STORIES 

No Chance to Rest. 

Wky, one day when my company was harmg its 
nsual weekly rest from the trenches, there were a 
couple of hundred of us bunking in a big barn fully 
eight miles behind our lines. About three m the 
afternoon along came a German aeroplane, and 
half an hour later they dropped a couple of shells 
between the barn and a church some thirty yards 
farther back, just by way of showing what they 
could do. We thought that was all, and settled 
down comfortably for the night ; but not a bit of 
it! At ten o*clock sharp a shell dropped plump 
onto the barn itself and killed five or six and 
wounded a dozen more, none of them Americans. 
We got out on the jump, though of course it was 
raining; and we were wise, for in the next half 
hour they hit the barn eleven times without a 
single miss, and at ten-thirty there weren't any 
big enough bits of it left to make matches of. The 
barn was perhaps thirty yards long by fifteen 
wide, but remember they were firing at a range of 
ten miles or so and in pitch darkness. Of course, 
they had got their guns trained right in the after- 
noon and just waited till night to give us a pleas- 
ant surprise. I did hear those were Austrian 
mortars, not German; anyway, they were good 
enough for us, I can tell you. 

But to go back to my story: We broke ranks 
and fled to cover, and remained in hiding ail that 
day near a ruined farm with shells falling all 
about, though they didn't do much damage. Bui 
our old-timers didn't like it one little bit. They 
had not been used to that kind of thing in Africa, 
and then the Germans and Austrians didn't at all 
fancy the idea of being fired upon by their owe 
people. In our company all of the Sergeants and 



WAR STORIES 11 

most of the other non-coms were Austrian — not 
that they turned out later to be any the worse 
fighters for that. There was one Sergeant named 
Wiedmann who fought like a lion; he was the 
bravest man in the regiment. Poor chap, I Ve just 
heard he was killed the other day by a hand 
grenade, and I 'm sorry. He was a real white man 
if ever I knew one. Our Lieutenant was a German 
nanted Bloch, and only the Captain was a Prench- 
maa. But all this mixture of races led to some 
rather curious results, as the following story will 
show: 

''The Corsican Brothers/' 

Among the recruits who joined us at Paris there 
were two young fellows from Corsica — the Corsi- 
can brothers, we called them, as they always stuck 
together — who said they belonged to the Corsican 
militia, but preferred to volunteer, as they wanted 
to see some fighting right away. Besides French, 
they spoke English fluently, and used to jabber 
away together in some local patois, but they w^ere 
both very smart soldiers and were soon promoted 
Corporals and got along fine. Every one liked 
them, and they stood very well with the officers as 
well. After we had been in the trenches about ten 
days theise two chaps disappeared one wet night 
and left behind a note for the Colonel, which I 
was lucky enough to see. It ran something like 
this: 

Most Honored Sir : 

Tiiougk we have spent a most agreeable time in 
your regiment — of which we have a good opinion, 
altfeougk the discipline is sometimes rather more 
lax than we are accustomed to — ^we feel that the 
moment has come for us to join our friends, which 
we ware unable to do at the mobilization, when we 



12 WAR STOEIES 

naturally .preferred the Foreign Legion to a con- 
centration camp. 

We will give a good account of you to our 
friends and hope to have the pleasure of meeting 
you again before long. 

Otto X 

Ober-Lieutenant, Potsdam Guards. 

Heemann Y 

Lieutenant, Potsdam Guards. 

Wouldn't that fease you? The Colonel nearly 
blew up. 

Well, at nightfall we resumed our march by 
separate companies. Our Captain didn't know 
the country, so of course we got lost. It was 
raining heavily, and the mud was frequently knee 
deep. Add to that incessant tumbles into number- 
less shell holes full of water, and you will realize 
that we were a pretty sad procession that finally 
at three A. M. scrambled into the stinking ditch 
where we were to spend the greater part of the 
next three months. 

For three or four days we had nothing to do but 
dodge the shrapnel and try and keep warm, as the 
enemy maintained a constant artillery fire — with 
a regular interval for luncheon — starting about 
six A. M. and stopping toward five P. M. ; and they 
got the range. I tell you, one lies pretty flat when 
there's any shrapnel about. Some of the English 
boys were killed the second day, but we Americans 
have been fine and lucky — only one killed the, 
whole time, though we have had some very nar- 
row shaves. For instance. Thaw had his bayonet 
knocked oif his rifle by a ^^ sniper" while on sen- 
try-go, and another boy named Merlac had his 
pipe taken clean out of his mouth by a shrapnel 
ball in the trenches. It didn't hurt him at all, but 



WAR STORIES 1 



fy 



I never saw any one look so surprised in my life. 
Shortly afterward Jimmy Bach (who is now in 
the Aviation Corps with Thaw and me) had his 
head cnt by a rifle bullet which just grazed it 
without doing more than make a deepish scratch. 
I myself had a close squeak the very day of our 
arrival in the trenches. A piece of shell weighing 
three or four pounds smashed to bits the pack on 
my back — including my best pipe, which I couldn't 
replace until I got back to Paris — without so much 
as bruising me, though it scared me something 
dreadful. 

Farewell, Whiskers! 

Our company had an eight days* ** shift" in the 
trenches, followed by three days' rest at a camp 
four miles in the rear. 

During the week's duty it was impossible to 
wash or take off one's clothes, and we quickly got 
into a horrible condition of filth. To begin with, 
there was a cake of mud from head to foot about 
half an inch thick; but what was worse was the 
vermin which infested our clothes almost imme- 
diately and were practically impossible to get rid 
of. They nearly broke the heart of Lieutenant 
Bloch. He had a wonderful crop of bright red 
whiskers, of which he was as projid as a kitten 
with its first mouse, because he thought they gave 
him a really warlike appearance, and he was al- 
ways combing them and squinting at them in a 
little pocket mirror. Well, one day the lice got 
into these whiskers and fairly gave him hades. He 
bore it for a week, scratching away at his chin 
until he was tearing out chunks of hair by the 
roots ; but at last he could stand no more, and had 
to have the whole lot shaved off. He was the sad- 
dest thing you ever saw after that, with a little 



14 WAE STORIES 

chifiless face like a pink rabbit, and was so 
ashamed lie hardly dared show himself in day- 
light. 

But mud and vermin were only minor worries, 
really ; our proper serious troubles were cold and 
hunger. It's pretty cool in the middle of France 
toward the end of November, and for some reason 
— I guess because they were such a lot of infernal 
thieves at our depot — we never got any of the 
clothes and warm wraps sent up from Paris for 
us. It was just throwing money away to try it. 
My wife mailed me three or four lots of woolen 
sweaters and underclothes, but I never received 
a single thing, and the rest of the boys had much 
the same experience. 

Running the Gauntlet, 

That was bad, but the hunger was something 
fierce. The Foreign Legion is not particularly 
well fed at any time — coffee and dry bread for 
breakfast, soup with lumps of meat in it for lunch- 
eon, with rice to follow, and the same plus coffee 
for dinner, and not too much of anything, either. 
But in our case all the grub had to be brought in 
buckets from the relief post, four miles away, by 
squads leaving the trenches at three A. M., ten 
A. M., and ^ye P. M., and a tough job it was, what 
with the darkness and the mud and the shell holes 
and the German cannonade, to say nothing of oc- 
casional snipers taking pot shots at you with 
rifles. I got one bullet once right between my 
legs, which drilled a hole in the next bucket in 
line and wasted all our coffee. 

As you can imagine, quite a lot of the stuff 
used to get spilt on the way, and then the boys 
carrying it used to scrape it up off the ground and 
put it back again, so that nearly everything one 



WAR STORIES 15 

ate waB full of gravel and, of course, absolutelj 
cold ^ More than once when the cannonade was 
especially violent we got nothing to eat all day 
but a couple of little old sardines; and, believe 
me, it takes a mighty strong stomach to stand that 
sort of treatment for any length of time. As far 
as we Americans were concerned, who were most- 
ly accustomed to man-sized meals, the net result 
was Iterally slow starvation. 

Repulsed With Loss. 

The second night in the trenches we had an 
alarm of a night attack. I crept out to a *' funk- 
hole' ' some thirty yards ahead of our trench with 
a coMple of friends. It v^as nearly ten o'clock 
and tiaere was a thin drizzle. We stared out into 
the darkness, breathing hard in our excitement. 
The usual fireworks display of searchlights and 
rockets oyer the German trenches was missing — 
an imvariable sign of a contemplated attack, we 
had been told. Suddenly I glimpsed a line of dim 
figures advancing slowly through the darkness. 
' ' Hold your fire, boys, ' ' t gasped. ' ' Let them get 
good and close before you loose off.*' They came 
nearer, stealthily, silently. We raised our rifles. 
Suddenly my friend on the right rolled over, shak- 
ing with noiseless laughter. For a moment we 
thought he was mad. Then we, too, realized the 
truth. The approaching column, instead of eager, 
bloodthirsty Germans, was a dozen harmless do- 
mestic cows, strays, doubtless, from a deserted 
farna. There were considerable casualties among 
the attacking force, and for a week at least the 
American section of the Foreign Legion kad an 
ample diet. 

Tke next night the three of us were out there 
agai®, but there was still no attack, though we bad 



16 WAE STOEIES 

rather a nasty experience all the same. We were 
crawling back to our trench about midnight when 
suddenly we found ourselves under a heavy fire. 
One bullet went through Thaw's kepi, but we soon 
saw that instead of coming from the Germans, the 
fire was directed from a section of our own 
trenches who thought there was an attack. We 
yelled, but they went on shooting. I was so mad 
that I shot back at them, but luckily there was no 
damage done anywhere. 

Praise for Germans, 

Two nights later there really did come an at- 
tack in considerable force. A lot of us crawled 
out into a hollow in front of our trench and, start- 
ing at about forty yards' distance, we let them. 
have it hot and heavy. We had our bayonets 
fixed, but they didn't get near enough to charge. 
I think we kept up America's reputation for 
marksmanship; anyway, they melted away after 
about half an hour, and in the morning there were 
several hundred dead bodies in front of the trench 
— they had taken the wounded back with them. 
The bodies were still there when I left, nearly 
three months later. I crawled out a night or two 
afterward and had a look at them, and was lucky 
enough to get an iron cross as a souvenir off a 
young officer. He was lying flat on his back with a 
hole between the eyes, and he had the horriblest 
grin human face ever wore; his lips were drawn 
right back off the teeth so that he seemed to be 
snarling like a wild beast ready to bite. 

We took no prisoners at all; in fact, none of 
them got near enough, and our Colonel didn't 
think it worth while risking a counter-charge. To 
tell the truth, we hardly took any prisoners any 
time, except here and there an occasional strag- 



WAR STORIES IT 

gler. I've heard stories about the Dutchies sur- 
rendering easily, but you can take it from me- 
that's all bunk. I used to think that one Irishman 
could lick seventeen Dutchmen; but, believe me, 
when they get that old uniform on they are a very 
different proposition. On one occasion a com- 
pany of the Legion surrounded a Lieutenant and 
eleven men. They called on them to surrender^ 
but not a bit of it. They held out all day and 
fought to the last gasp. At last only the Lieu- 
tenant and one soldier were left alive, both 
wounded. Again they refused to give in, and 
they had to kill the Lieutenant before the last sur- 
vivor finally threw down his rifle and let them 
carry him off. I heard he died on the way to the 
station, and I'm mighty sorry; he was a white 
man, if he was a German. 

One remarkable thing about the prisoners we 
did get was their exceedingly thorough knowledge 
of everything going on, not only of the war in 
general, but of all that was taking place back of 
our trenches. Their spy system is something mar- 
velous. Why, they knew the exact date our rein- 
forcements were coming on one occasion nearly a 
week beforehand, when the majority of our fel- 
lows hadn't even an idea there were any expected! 

In some cases they got information from French 
villagers whom they had bought before they re- 
treated. I saw one such case myself. We were 
bivouacked in a ruined village, and a lot of us 
were sleeping in and around a cottage that hadn't 
been damaged. We were downstairs, while the 
owner of the cottage and his wife and kid had the 
upstairs room. One of our boys happened to go 
outside in the night and, by jingo ! he saw the fel- 
low coolly signaling with a lamp behind his cur- 
tain. He went along and told the Captain, who 



18 , WAE STORIES 

was at the schoolhouse, and they came back with 
a couple of under officers and arrested them red- 
handed. He tried to hide under the bed, and 
howled for mercy when they pulled him out. His 
wife never turned a hair — the Sergeant told me 
she looked as if she was glad he'd been caught. 
They shot him there and then in his own yard, and 
his wife was around in the morning just as if 
nothing had happened. 



jf 



'^Pluckiest Thing in the War: 

After that we always used to be very suspicious 
of any house or village that wasn't devastated 
when everything round had been chewed up ; there 
was nearly always a spy concealed somewhere not 
far off. To give you a case in point : There was a 
fine big chateau near Craonelle, where our 
trenches were, that hadn't been bombarded, 
though they had stripped most of the furniture 
and stuff out of it. Well, one fine day the General 
commanding our section thought it would be a 
convenient place to hold a big pow-wow. He and 
his staff had only been seated at the table about 
ten minutes when a whacking great 310-millimeter 
shell burst right on top of the darned place, fol- 
lowed by a perfect hail of others. The General 
and his staff ran for their lives ; luckily none of 
them were badly hurt, though they got the deuce 
of a scare. 

After the bombardment some of us went along 
to look at what was left of the chateau, and — ^will 
you believe me? — we found a little old Dutch 
sous-off half choked in the cellar, but still hanging 
on to the business end of a telephone. I call that 
the pluckiest thing I've seen at the war, and I can 
tell you we were mighty sorry to hare to shoot 



WAE STOEIES If 

him. He never turned a hair, either^ and we 
didn 't even suggest bandaging Ms eyes. He kaew 
what was coming to him from the start ; thai he 
was as good as a dead man from the moment he 
got into the cellar. He told us he had been there 
a week, just waiting for some confiding bunch of 
French officers to come along and hold a meeting. 
It's funny how some men meet death, knyway. 
We had one nigger prize fighter along with us 
named Boh Scanlon. He was the blackest eoon 
you ever saw, until one day there came a great big 
''marmite" that burst almost on top of him and 
buried him in the mud. We dug him out, and he 
wasn't even scratched, but ever afterward he has 
been a kind of mulatto color, he was so daraed 
scared by the narrowness of his escape. 

Good Way to Die. 

Another boy, an Englishman, , got out of the 
trench one day to stretch his legs, as he said he 
was tired of sitting still. Some one called to Mm 
to come down and not be a fool, as the Germans 
were keeping up a constant rifle fire, and after a 
minute or two he jumped back into the trench. 
'^They didn't get you, did they?" called out some 
one. **0h, no!" he answered, sitting down. Then 
all of a sudden he just keeled over slowly sideways 
without a sound, and, believe me, when they went 
to pick him up he was as dead as David — plugged 
clean through the heart. He never even felt the 
shock of it. If they do ever get m«, that's the way 
I hope to die. 



20 WAR STORIES 

FRENCHMAN MEETS THAT STRANGE BE- 
ING, TOMMY ATKINS. 

lATTER^S UN-FBENOH WAYS AMUSINGLY DEPICTED BY 
PAEISIAN JOUENALIST FOR HIS EEADEES. 

The thousands of English soldiers now on 
French soil are, to Frenchmen, strange, exotic 
creatures, the study of which is full of delightful 
surprises. Recently a French journalist traveled 
to the trenches, interviewed several specimens of 
the genus Tommy Atkins, and published the re- 
sults in a Paris newspaper. 

One Tommy was ^^of the species crane, '* with 
thin legs and arms like telegraph wires, by no 
means as taciturn as the Frenchman had believed 
Englishmen to be. He told the Frenchman some 
tall yarns. 

**In one fight our battalion lost five hundred 
men,'^ he vouchsafed. "One bullet, which just 
scratched my nose, killed my pal beside me. ' ' 

Another Tommy dwelt on the awful fact that he 
had been * ^ twenty-two days on water without any 
tea in it.'* He, too, had been in the thick of the 
fray and had killed several of the enemy with his 
own hand, which, recounts the Frenchman, filled 
him with * ^ a gentle joy. * ' 

**Are the inhabitants of this part of France 
hospitable?** the journalist inquired of another 
Englishman. 

"Awfully nice!" replied the soldier. These 
words the correspondent, after giving them in 
English, to show how strange they look, trans- 
lates: " Terriblement aimable*' — a combination 
which must appear perfectly incomprehensible to 
Frenchmen, who do not see how a thing can be 
*' awful'* and "nice** at the same time. 



WAR STOEIES 21 

At a village in Northern France the newspaper 
man found some English soldiers instructing a lot 
of village boys in the rudiments of football. 

**When the French team scored a point," he 
writes, ^*I said to one of the Englishmen: *But 
aren't you ashamed to let them beat you at your 
own gamer To which the Briton replied: ^Ah, 
but we want to encourage the people of France to 
take up sports ! ' " 

Football was being played wherever there were 
Englishmen. Often the games were between teams 
of English and French soldiers. Where a ball 
was not to be had, the players were quite content 
to kick about a bundle of clothes. 

When not thus engaged, the English soldier 
finds time to enter the lists of Cupid. The French 
writer tells of one Tommy whom he saw ^^prome- 
nading proudly before the awe-struck glances of 
the villagers with three girls on his arm ! ' ' 

* * The English 1 Oh, they 're good fellows ! " re- 
marked a villager in whose house a number of the 
allies of France were quartered. * ^They're in 
bed snoring every night at eight. They get to- 
gether in my kitchen while I make their tea and 
sing sentimental songs. They're all musical." 
The journalist adds, in corroboration of this state- 
ment, that he himself heard Tommies ** singing 
discordantly to the accompaniment of the cannon. ' ' 

Also he found that Tommy had a sense of hu- 
mor. On one occasion, he learned, a German offi- 
cer came charging at the head of his men into an 
English trench. Leaping over the edge of it, he 
fell headlong into a sea of black mud, from which 
he picked himself up, black and dripping, and ex- 
claimed : 

**What a confounded nuisance this old war is, 
isn't itr' 



22 WAR STORIES 

Wkerenpon a Tommy, about to run his feayonet 
tkroagh the intruder, burst into roars of lang'hter, 
aa4 made him a prisoner instead. 

^^And the Tommies are philosophers, too,'^ 
writes the Frenchman. '^1 heard one of them say 
soleannly to a comrade: ^If you have any money, 
ap^id it all to-day. You may be dead to-mor- 
xowV *' 

mm YOUNG SOLDIER WHO PROTED A 

HERO. 

'^J^ean Berger, * simple soldat' of the Second 
Regiment of Infantry, should, after the war, be 
Jean Berger, V. C. He is a Frenchman — ^yes ; but 
listen to this story : 

^*He, a boy of about eighteen years of age, lies 
in hospital here, wounded badly, but not danger- 
ously, in the side and also in the hand. 

** Jean belongs to an old Alsatian family. After 
the war against Prussia, his grandfather refused 
to submit to the rule of the conquerors, and left 
the province to settle in Normandy. He passed 
his hatred of the Prussians on to his son, and the 
son instilled it in the four grandchildren. 

*^When war broke out, two of the sons were al- 
ready in the army, one as an oflScer, and the 
father, calling to him the two boys wh® were not 
yet of age to be called upon by the military au- 
thorities, said to them : * Go and enlist ! And be 
sure to join regiments which will operate on the 
Alsatian frontier. ' 

*' Jeam joined the Second Regiment of Infantry, 
which was soon under orders for Upper Alsace. 
Before it arrived at the scene of operations, how- 
ever, fresh instructions were received, and the 
Second went to operate with the Engli^ on the 



' WAR STORIES 23 

left. He Trent througli the terrible ordeal of the 
battle of the Marne, and, with his regiment, now 
sadly diminished in numbers, but with its dash 
and spirit as of old, he formed one of the stupen- 
dous line drawn up to face the Germans in their 
tremendously strong positions on the Aisne. 

^^It was during one of the almost innumerable 
fights which, battles in themselves, are making up 
that Homeric struggle of the nations on the River 
Aisne that the Colonel leading the gallant Second 
was shot down. Machine guns were raking the 
quickly thrown-up trenches ; showers of rifle bul- ' 
lets were falling everywhere around. With that 
heroism which takes account of nothing save the 
object in view, Jean rushed out of his shelter to 
carry his Colonel to safety. 

'^Through a rain of leaden death he passed 
scatheless, reached his Colonel, and carried him to 
safety. 

Bach Through Hail of Lead. 

^^As he was performing his glorious act, he 
passed an officer of the Grenadier Guards 
wounded severely in the leg who called put for 
water. 

' ' ' AU right ! ' cried Jean. ' I ^11 be back in a min- 
ute or two, ' 

''He put the Colonel in the shelter of a trench 
where the Red Cross men were at work, procured 
some wine from one of the doctors, and set forth 
again to face the bullet showers. And again he 
went out untouched. 

''Reaching the English officer, Jean held up the 
flask to the wounded man's lips, but, before he 
could drink, a bullet struck the young Frenchman 
in the iiand, 43arrying away three fingers, and the 



24 WAE STOEIES 

flask fell to the ground. Quickly, as though the 
flask had merely slipped out of one hand by acci- 
dent, Jean picked it up with the other; and, sup- 
ported by the young Frenchman, the English offi- 
cer drank. 

** While he was doing so, a bullet drilled Jean 
through the side. Yet, in spite of the intense pain, 
he managed to take off his knapsack, and, search- 
ing in it, discovered some food, which he gave to 
his English comrade. 

** *But what about you, yourself?' asked the 
officer. 

*^ *0h,' replied Jean brightly, 'it's not long 
since I had a good meal ! ' 

**As the Guardsman was eating, he and Jean 
•discovered that near them was a wounded German 
soldier, who, recovering from the delirium of 
wounds, was crying out for food and drink. The 
Englishman, taking the flask, which had still some 
wine in it, and also the remainder of the food from 
the Frenchman's knapsack, managed, though suf- 
fering great pain, to roll himself along till he 
reached the spot where the German soldier lay. 
There, however, he found he was, by himself, too 
weak to give the poor fellow anything. 

'*So he shouted to Jean to come to his assist- 
ance, and, though movement could only be at the 
cost of great pain, the young Frenchman man- 
aged, too, to reach the place, and together. Eng- 
lishman and Frenchman, succored the dying Ger- 
man. One held him up while the other poured 
wine between his parched lips. 

All Fall in a Heap. 

**Then human nature could stand no more, and 
all three fell, utterly exhausted, in a heap to- 
gether. All through the long night, a night contin- 



WAR STORIES 25 

uously broken by the roar of cannon, death 
watched over that strange sleeping place of the 
three comrades of three great warring nations. 

**In the morning, shells bursting near them 
aronsed the English officer and the French soldier. 
Their German neighbor was dead, and for a long 
time they could only wonder how the day of battle 
was going. When the forenoon was well ad- 
vanced, they saw Germans advancing. 

** Jean, who can speak German, called out: *We 
are thirsty; please give us something to drink.' 
He was heard by some officer of Uhlans, who rode 
up, and, dismounting and covering them with his 
revolver, asked what was the matter. 

'* ^We are thirsty,' replied Jean. 

''The German looked at the little group. He 
saw his countryman lying dead with an empty 
flask beside him, and guessed what was the scene 
of comradeship and bravery which the spot had 
witnessed. He gave instructions to an orderly, 
and wine was brought and given to the two 
wounded men. Surely that is a scene and a deed 
which will wipe out many a bitter thought and 
memory of war ! 

''Just then the cannonade burst forth again 
with tremendous fury, and the German force 
which had come up had to retire. Shells were 
soon bursting all around, and fragments struck 
the English officer. He became delirious with 
pain, and the young Frenchman — stiff, feverish, 
and weak himself — saw that it was necessary to 
do something to bring the officer to a place where 
he would be safe and would receive attention. 

"Jean tried to lift the Englishman, but found 
that he had not sufficient strength left to take his 
comrade on his shoulder. So, half lifting him, 
and dragging and rolling him at times, the gal- 




26 WAR STORIES 

lant little piou-piou brought tlie wounded English 
officer nearer and nearer to safety and help. The 
journey was two miles long! * * * But at 
last it was over. * ' 

May Get Victoria Cross, 

^*The two men came upon some trenches occu- 
pied by the allied forces; they were recognized 
and taken in charge by an officer of the English 
Red Cross. They had both just enough strength 
left to shake hands and say good-by. 

^' *M I live through this/ said the officer of the 
Guards, *I shall do my best to get you the British 
Victoria Cross. I've your number and that of 
your regiment. God bless you, mon camarade!' 
And the Guardsman lost consciousness. 

'^Jean Berger lies in hospital here in Angers; 
he is expected to recover. 

^^That is the story; and that is why I believe 
that England will think that Jean Berger, * simple 
soldat' of the Second Regiment of Infantry, 
should become Jean Berger, V. C. 

^ ^ For the two nations have become one by blood 
shed and bravery displayed, and, in addition, a 
little incident which I can relate will show that 
there is a precedent for a union of honors as there 
is evidence of a complete union of hearts. 

^ ^ In the British Expeditionary Force there is an 
English soldier, a member of a cyclist corps, who 
is proud to wear upon his breast the ^medaiile 
militaire' of the French Army. 

^^The story of the stirring incident has been 
told to me by Henri Roger, a young soldier of 
the Fifth Infantry who saw it from the trendies 
and who is now lying wounded in hospital here. 

'^During one of the engagements last we^ on 
the RiTer Aisne, the Fifth was holding aa in- 



WAR STORIES 27 

trenclied position and was faced in the distance by 
a strong force of the enemy. To the right and 
left of the opposing forces were large clumps of 
tre^s, in one of which a force of English troops 
had taken up a position, a fact regarding which 
the Germans were unaware. In the other wood, 
it was soon discovered, lay a considerable body of 
German infantry with several machine gun sec- 
tions. 

Cyclist Wins Decoration, 

''A road ran beside the wood in which the en- 
emy lay hidden, and along it a force of French in- 
fantry was seen to be advancing. How were they 
to be saved from the ambush into which they were 
marching? That was the problem, and it was a 
difficult one. 

*^ Every time the French troops in the trenches 
endeavored to signal to their oncoming comrades 
hidden German sharpshooters picked off the sig- 
nalers. Soon the position seemed to be almost 
desperate; every moment the intrenched French 
soldiers expected to hear the hideous swish of the 
Maxims mowing down their unsuspecting com- 
rades. 

*^ Suddenly, however, something happened 
which attracted the attention of the French and 
German trenches. From the wood where the Eng- 
lish lay hidden a cyclist dashed — the English, too, 
had seen the danger, and a cyclist had been or- 
dered to carry a message of warning to the ad- 
vancing French column, several hundreds strong. 

**The cyclist bent low in his saddle and darted 
forward ; he had not gone a hundred yards before 
he fell, killed by a well-aimed German bullet., A 
minute later another cyclist appeared, only, in 
a second or two, to share his comrade's fate. 



2S WAR STOEIES 

**Then a tMrd — the thing had to be done! The 
bnllets whizzed round him, but on he went over 
the fire-swept zone. The Frenchmen held their 
breath as they watched the gallant cyclist speed- 
ing toward the French column; puffs of smoke 
from the wood where the Germans were showed 
that the sharpshooters were redoubling their ef- 
forts. But the cyclist held on and soon passed 
beyond some high ground where he was sheltered 
from the Germans, but could still be seen by the 
intrenched French. 

* * The Frenchmen could not resist a loud ' Hur- 
rah!' when they saw the daring cyclist dismount 
on reaching the officer in command of the troops 
which he had dared death to save. 

*'The officer heard the message and took in the 
position at a glance. He gave an order or two 
instantly, and turned to the Englishman. 

**Then there was a fine but simple battle pic- 
ture which should live. 

'*The deed which had saved hundreds of lives 
was one of those which bring glory as of old back 
to the horror of modern warfare. Courage, and 
courage alone, had triumphed, unsupported by 
any of the murderous machinery of the armies of 
to-day. 

*^That was what the French officer recognized. 
He saluted the gallant fellow standing by the 
cycle. Then, with a simple movement, took the 
'medaille militaire' — the Victoria Cross of France 
— from his own tunic and pinned it on the coat of 
the Englishman. 

** *I am glad,' young Roger told me when he 
had finished relating the story, *to have lived to 
see that deed. It was glorious!' " 



WAE STORIES 29 



DR. MARY CRAWFORD OF BROOKLYN 
TELLS OF AMERICAN AMBULANCE 
WORK IN A PARIS HOSPITAL. 

TRAGEDY AND HUMOR MIXED. 

Dr. Mary Merritt Crawford, who in 1907 be- 
came widely known as^ Brooklyn's first woman 
ambulance surgeon, and who has established for 
herself since that time an enviable reputation in 
the medical profession, served in the American 
Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly-Sur-Seine under 
Dr. du Bouchet and Dr. Joseph Blake. Her letters 
recounting her experiences among the wounded 
describe in the most graphic manner the terrible 
nature of the wounds inflicted in modern warfare. 

She writes : 

**We have been getting so many men with 
frozen feet from the trenches. They have had 
much snow near Ypres, they say, and the cold is 
terrible. Last night one poor Frenchman, who 
had been in the trenches for several weeks before 
he was wounded, was told he would be sent away 
to-morrow. His regiment is still up north and he 
would be sent there. He went almost mad with 
despair and tried to kill himself. This is the only 
case I've come directly in contact with, although 
IVe heard of others. I wonder there aren't more. 
Most of the little 'piou-pious' take it with wonder- 
ful stoicism. It is fate, and they accept it, but 
no one wants to go back to trench fighting. I 



3© WAE STOEIES 

•lon't blame them for anything they do, "Mmx&susL 
flesh and blood cannot stand it beyomd n <sartaim 
point. ' ' 



^ ^ Two days ago we had a poor wretch admitted, 
who had, by actual count, 150 shrapnel wounds @n 
him. You never saw anything so ghastly as he 
was. The shell had burst so close that all his hair 
was singed, and he was literally peppered with 
pieces of shell. He died to-night and I couldn't 
help but be glad a little, for his suffering would 
have been so awful and long-drawn out had he 
lived. 

''To-day I'm dismissing one of my little zou- 
zous (Zouaves). He gave me one of his buttons 
as a souvenir, and when I gave him 2 francs he 
wouldn't take it until I told him to keep it as a 
souvenir, not as money. Then he did finally eon- 
sent. He had to go out in the same dirty uniform, 
all blood-stained and with the bullet hole in his 
coat. The French Government is making the 
gray-blue clothes as fast as possible. IVe seen 
a number when walking in Paris. They are the 
same cut as before, not as trim and compaet as 
our service clothes, but the men inside are splen- 
did, aBid as patients, ideal." 



* 



A Dog That Saved His Master. 

**I must write you just one story that calne t« 
m^ at the ambulance just before Christmas, evem 



WAE STORIES 31 

though it is a little late. We had a Freaek soMier 
brougM in frightfully wounded. He came from 
the region around St. Mihiel. One leg had to be 
amputated, and, besides that, he had half a dozen 
other wounds. His dog came with him— a hunting 
dog of some kind. This dog had saved his mas- 
ter's life. They were in the trenches together, 
when a shell burst in such a way as to collapse 
the whole trench. Every one in it was killed or 
buried in the collapse, and this dog dug and dug 
until ke got his master's face free, so that he 
could breathe, and then he sat by him until some 
reinforcements came and dug them all out. Every 
one was dead but this man. We have both the dog 
and the man with us. The dog has a little house 
all to himself in the court, and he has blankets and 
lots of petting, and every day he is allowed to be 
with Ms master for a little while." 






''I am very tired to-night. For some time now 
I've had charge of the dental cases, in addition to 
my regular work. Just now I have nine of them. 
They are the men who have fractures of the upper 
or lower jaws besides other v/ounds. The Ameri- 
can dentists here are doing wonderful work- 
some of the most brilliant that is done in any de- 
partment. Such deformities you never saw. The 
whole front of one man's face is gone, and how 
we are going to build him a new one I don't see, 
but as soon as he is ready we'll begin grafting and 
plastic work generally. One of these men is a 
black boy, the saddest figure in the whole hospital 
to me. His identification tag was lost in transit. 
He doesn't read or write or speak a word of 
Frenck and none of our Senegalesi, Moroccans, 
AigeriaBS, or Tunisians can talk to him. He is 



32 WAR STORIES 

utterly alone and lost. In the course of time the 
Government will place him, but it will be a long 
process. His wound is ghastly. The bullet hit his 
front teeth, but as his lips must have been drawn 
back in a snarl or laugh at the time, no wound ap- 
pears there. The whole of his left upper and 
lower teeth were blown out, upper and lower jaw 
fractured and literally his whole left cheek blown 
away. You can put your fingers right into his 
mouth from just in front of his ear and see the 
inner side of his lips. It is awful taking care of 
him, but he is as patient as some poor dog who 
knows you are trying to help him. 

* 

* * Next week I am going to have all my jaw cases 
photographed together. Their deformities are 
frightful, but they are cheery. One man whose 
whole front face is almost gone is now radiant. 
You see he couldn't smoke because he couldn't 
suck in the air, having no upper teeth or lip. Well, 
the dentists built him a kind of * false front' of 
soft rubber, and now he is ^tres gentil,' as he says, 
and can smoke nicely. My poor black boy is much 
better. Dr. Blake did a marvelous operation on 
his face and closed in most of the gap. Suddenly 
to-day we discovered he was talking French. Be- 
fore he wouldn't say a word — couldn't, poor fel- 
low! — and seemed not to understand. He says 
his name is Hramess ben something or other. Also 
he says that he fought for three days with that 
ghastly, blown-to-pieces face, and didn 't give up un- 
til he got the bullet in his back. Did I tell you we 
got the bullet out, and he has it as a souvenir? He 
nearly died of mortification because we had thought 
he was a Senegalesi — he is so dark. He says he 
is an Algerian, and has told us his regiment. 



WAPt STORIES 33 

* ' I must finisli this letter with an attempted ac- 
count of our wonderful fete de Noel, which was 
held here this afternoon [this letter was written 
on Christmas Eve], and which will terminate at 
midnight with a mass in the chapel. A famous 
opera singer is to sing Gounod's ^Ave Maria,' 
and I'm going to prop open my weary eyes and 
attend it. 

^^We decorated the wards and halls with holly 
and mistletoe, which grows in great abundance 
and richness here in France. We had the tree all 
lighted by electric bulbs downstairs, with a beau- 
tiful Santa Claus giving out gifts. All walking 
cases filed in and received small gifts. Many came 
in chairs, too. Meantime a trained chorus was 
walking through the halls from floor to floor, sing- 
ing Christmas carols, and finally Santa Claus car- 
ried his gifts to all the bed patients. In the mean- 
while the chapel was filled with soldiers and 
nurses, and many patriotic songs were sung. The 
singing made me so homesick that the tears came 
and I had to go back to my sick men. I bought 
each man a package of cigarettes and a box of 
matches, and I gave an enlargement of the group 
photo I sent you to each man in it. Also I lent 
them my big silk American flag to help decorate. 

The Clown of the Hospital, 

'VAhmed, the big Turco, who came to me with 
seven shrapnel wounds, but is now almost v/ell, 
and who I told you is the proud husband of two 
wives and the father of six sons — he does not 
count the daughters — got hold of the flag some- 
how, and now it hangs proudly over his bed. By 
the way, he heard this morning that one of his 
wives, Faiima, has presented him with a son, so 
now he has seven. Such joy ! While I was down 



34 WAR STORIES 

at noon buying the tobacco and a few little tkings 

for K I saw a little doll, chocolate in color, 

dressed as a baby. I bought it and put it on Ah- 
med's pillow when he wasn 't looking. The instant 
he spied it he let off a yell : ^ Mon fils do Tunis ! ' 
and hugged that poupee and carried on naost de- 
lightfully. 

'^I also bought a wooden crane, whose head, 
neck, and feet move, for Moosa, the black Sene- 
galesi. I told you about him a long time ago, but 
not by name. He is the one who said a prayer 
over Ms wound and tried to bite every one who 
came near him. He has become quite tame under 
the influence of Dr. Chauneau, who is the most 
charming old Frenchman imaginable. Moosa got 
toys exactly like a child and was just as delighted. 
He laughs just like a typical Southern darky does, 
and is altogether funny. They keep him in a red 
jacket and cap, and the color effect is splendid. 
It reminds me of chocolate and strawberry ice 
cream. ^ 

^ ' That Turco, Ahmed, whom I Ve spoken of sev- 
eral times, and who is absolutely devoted to me, 
keeps the ward in a perfect gale. Last night the 
men had a regular circus there, and it was all 
fomented by that old rascal. IVe told you how 
he insists on calling me ^maman' and is jealous as 
a spoiled child if I show any extra attention to 
any of the other patients in the ward. Well, last 
night old Ahmed was very much excited when I 
came in after supper. He has learned some Eng- 
lish, which he now mixes with his French and 
Arabic. When I asked him what was the trouble 
he said: *Spik, mamanf ' meaning might he talk. 
I graciously gave him permission, whereupo-a he 
burst into burning speech. 



WAE STORIES 35 

^ ' He said they were all Frencli, both Arabs and 
Frenckmen, and the English were their allies, 
weren't they? Yes. They were all wonnded? 
Yes. All in the same cause? Yes. Some had 
more than one wound ; he had seven ? Yes. Then 
why weren 't they all fed alike ? Why should Ris- 
bourg sit in bed, never walking, never going to the 
table to eat — in fact, never doing any of the things 
they all had to do — and yet have extra feeding? 
You gee, Risbourg is the case I told you of that 
nearly died of hemorrhage from a small arm 
wound. He had to be transfused and he is on 
extra feeding to make up his blood. He does eat 
enormously, and I love to see him do it. 

' ' Well, I noticed that Risbourg was the only one 
who wasn't laughing, so I called Ahmed to atten- 
tion and told him the story of the hemorrhage, 
whereupon he gave me a huge wink to show that 
it was all a joke. Risbourg didn't regard it as 
such, so I went over and told him that I under- 
stood, and that I wanted him to eat as much as he 
wanted, and that it was all right. He is really 
very devoted to me, and said: ^You, doctor, you 
understand, but all the time Ahmed tells the nurse 
to tell you that I eat too much. ' 

^^By this time they were all crowding around 
him trying to make up, and he added : ^ I know 
why they say such things ! It is because I am of 
the infantry of France, and they are zouaves and 
tirailleurs (artillerymen) of Africa. I am alone 
among them. ' 

*'Well, this was getting serious, so I made a 
speech and told them they were all Frenchmen 
and brothers, and we all ^ vived la France !' Them 
Old Incorrigible had to pipe up again: *Mais, 
maniaM, Eisbourg said I didn't smell good. And 



36 WAE STOEIES 

he spat when I said I was a Frenchman. And also 
he said he was a German. ' 

^^I said: ^Eisbourg, did you tell him you were 
a German?' Eisbourg smiled broadly (he has one 
tooth gone just like Dave Warfield) and said: 
^ Yes, doctor, but because the Irish boy told me to. 
Je fais une plaisance.' So then I pointed out to 
him that he had had his little joke, and Ahmed 
had had his, when he said that he ate too much. 
Great applause from the Arabs, who quickly got' 
the ethical point. So we all made up and shook 
hands.'' 

EOYALTY AT THE FEONT 

The following letter, written by Prince Joachim 
of Prussia, the youngest son of the German Em- 
peror, was addressed to a wounded comrade in 
arms by the Prince, himself at that time recover- 
ing from a wound suffered in battle. Prince 
Joachim, who is 24 years old, is a Lieutenant in 
the First Prussian Infantry Guards. In a tone of 
easy-going comradeship, not usually associated 
with the stern and imperious Hohenzollerns, the 
young Prince wrote to his friend and fellow- 
guardsman, Sergt. Karl Kummer, who had been 
sent, badly wounded, to the home of his sister at 
Teplitz : 

My dear Kummer: How sincerely I rejoiced 
to receive your very solicitous letter ! I was sure 
of Kummer for that ; that no one could hold him 
back when the time came to do some thrashing! 
God grant that 3^ou may speedily recover, so that 
you can enter Potsdam, crowned with glory, ad- 
mired, and envied. Who is nursing you? 

The old proud First Guard Eegiment has 
proved that it was ready to conquer and to die. 
Kummer, if I can in any way help you, I shall 



WAE STORIES 37 

gladly do so, by providing anjrfcMng that will 
make you comfortable. You know bow happy I 
have always been for your devotion to the serv- 
ice, and how we two always were for action 
(Schwung). I, too, am proud to have been 
wounded for our beloved Fatherland, and I regret 
only that I am not permitted to be with the regi- 
ment. Well, may God take care of you! Your 
devoted Joachim or Pbussia. 

* 

Interesting, too, is a letter written on Sept. 5 
by Ernest II., Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, who, be- 
sides being a Lieutenant of the Prussian Guard 
and Chief of the Eighth Infantry Regiment of 
Thuringia, is Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (since 
1908), of Juliers, Cleves and Berg, Engern, and 
Westphalia; Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave 
of Misnia, Count of Henneberg, Marche, Ravens- 
berg, and Seigneur of Ravenstein and Tonna. In 
1898 the Duke married Princess Adelaide of 
Schaumburg-Lippe, thus uniting two great Ger- 
man houses. His own house was started in 1655 
by Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. His let- 
ter follows : 

We have lived through a great deal and done a 
great deal, marching, marching, continually, with- 
out rest or respite. On Aug. 10 we reached Will- 
dorf, near Jtilich, by train, and from the 12th of 
August we marched without a single day of rest 
except Aug. 16, which we spent in a Belgian vil- 
lage near Liege, until to-day, when we reached 
. These have been army marches such as his- 
tory has never known. 

The weather was fine, except that a broiling 
heat blazed down upon us. The regiment can 
point back to several days' marches of fifty kilo- 



38 WAR STORIES 

Bieters . Everywhere our arrival created 

great amazement, in Louvain as well as in Brus- 
sels, into which the entire marched at one 

time. At first we were taken for Englishmen in 
almost every village, and we still are, because the 
inhabitants cannot realize that we have arrived 
so early. The Belgians, moreover, in the last few 
days almost invariably set fire to their own vil- 
lages. 

On Aug. 24 we first entered battle ; I l@d a com- 
bined brigade consisting of . The regiment 

fought splendidly, and in spite of the gigantic 
strain put upon it, it is still in the best of spirits 
and full of the joy of battle. On that day I was 
for a long time in the sharpest rifle and artillery 
fire. Since that time there have been almost daily 
skirmishes and continual long marches ; the enemy 
stalks ahead of us in seven-league boots. 

On Aug. 26 we put behind us a march of exactly 
twenty-three hours, from 6 :30 o 'clock in the morn- 
ing until 5 :30 the next morning. With all that, I 
was supposed to lead my regiment across a bridge 
to take a position guarding a new bridge Im course 
of construction; but the bridge, as we discovered 
in the nick of time, was mined; twenty minutes 
later it flew into the air. 

After resting for three hours in a field of stub- 
ble, and after we had all eaten in common with 
the men in a field kitchen — as we usually do — w^e 
continued marching till dark. 

The spirit among our men is excellent. To- 
night I am to have a real bed — the fourth, I be- 
lieve, »inoe the war began. To-day I umdressed* 
for tke first time in eight days. 

*** ^ 
Tke bittMe of Lyck, the victory of wMcii has 



WAE STORIES 39 

heretofore been attributed solely to Field Marshal 
von Hindenburg, would appear to have been won 
by his subordinate, Gen. Curt E. von Morgen, ac- 
cording to the following letter, written hj Gen. 
von Morgen to his friend Dr. Eschenburg, Mayor 
of Liibeck, the city where, in peace times, Gen. 
von Morgea was stationed as commander of the 
Eighty-first Infantry Brigade. Gen. vo®. Morgen 
is 56 years old. He has been in the armj since 
1878, when he was appointed Lieutenant in the 
Sixty- third Infantry Brigade. He served in the 
German campaign in the Kamerun in 1894 and 
suppressed the rebellion there in 1896 and 1897. 
In the latter year he served also in the Tkessaly 
campaign, attached to the headquarters of Edhem 
Pasha, and in 1898 he accompanied the German 
Emperor on the latter 's journey to Palestine. The 
General wrote : 

SuwALKi^ Sept. 13. 

Yesterday, after a short fight, I captured Su- 
walki, and I am now seated in the Government 
Palace. This morning I marched into the city 
with my division, and was greeted at the city lim- 
its by a priest and the Mayor, who o:ffered me 
bread and salt. (The Russian officials had fled.) 
It was a glorious moment for me. I kave ap- 
pointed a General Staff officer as Governor of the 
Government of Suwalki. 

To-morrow we continue to march against the 
enemy. The army of Rennenkampf is completely 
destroyed. Thirty thousand men captured. Een- 
nenkampf and the Commander in Chief, Nicholas 
Nicholaiewitoh, fled from Insterburg in dvilian 
garb. 

The plan of the Russians was to get us into a 
pot, but it was frustrated. The Twelfth Eassian 
Army Corp*, which was advancing from the south 



40 WAR STORIES 

to flank our army, was beaten by me on Sept. 7, at 
Bialla, and on Sept. 9 at Lyck and was forced back 
over the border. 

You know that I always yearned for martial 
acMevements. I bad never expected tbem to be 
as great and glorious as these, however. I owe 
them in the first place to the vigorous offensive 
and bravery of my troops. I was probably fool- 
hardy on Sept. 9, when I attacked a force thrice 
my superior in numbers, and in a fortified posi- 
tion ; but even if I had been beaten I should have 
carried out the task assigned to me, for this Rus- 
sian corps could no longer take part in the de- 
cisive battle. And so, in the evening, I sent in my 
last battalion and attacked by storm the village 
of Bobern, lying on the left wing. This, my last 
effort, must so have impressed the Russians that 
they began the retirement that very night. On 
the morning of the 10th of September the last 
trenches were taken. 

My opponents were picked troops of the Rus- 
sian Army — Finnish sharpshooters. 

Health conditions with me are tolerable. 

(In a later note, Gen. von Morgen added that 
Gen. von Hindenburg, his Commander in Chief, 
sent word that he would never forget the valorous 
deeds that had made possible these victories, and 
that even before the battle of Lyck the Iron Cross 
of the Second Class had been accorded to Gen. 
von Morgen. When he entered Lyck, Gen. von 
Morgen said, the inhabitants kissed his hands.) 

*** 

A letter containing a personal touch was sent 
from the front in the early part of the war by 
Rudolf Herzog, one of Germany's greatest living 
poets and novelists. The letter, as originally pub- 



WAE STOKIES 41 

lished, was in rhymed verse. The poet, who vis- 
ited this country about a year ago and was feted 
by Germans in all the chief cities he visited, is the 
author of numerous novels and romances, dating 
from 1893 to the present. Herzog lives in a fine 
old castle overlooking the Rhine, mentioned in his 
letter, which is as follows : 

It had been a wild week. The storm-wind swept 
with its broom of rain. It lashed us and splashed 
US, thrashed noses and ears, whistled through our 
clothing, penetrated the pores of our skin. And 
in the deluge — sights that made us shudder — 
gaunt skeleton churches, cracked walls, smoking 
ruins pjled hillock high; cities and villages — 
judged, annihilated. 

Of twenty bridges, there remained but beams 
rolled up by the waters — and yawning gaps. 

Not a thought remained for the distant home- 
land and dear ones far away; the only thought, by 
day and by night: On to the enemy, come what 
may ! No mind intent on any other goal. No time 
to lose ! No time to lose ! Haste ! Haste ! 

And forward and backward and criss-cross 
through the gray Ardennes the Chief Lieutenant 
and I, racing day after day. 

Captain of the Guard! You? From the Staff 
Headquarters? 

He shouts my name as he approaches : 

* * Congratulations ! Congratulations ! ' ' 

And he waves a paper above a hundred heads. 

* * Telegram from home 1 Make way, there, you 
Tascals! At the home of our poet — ^I've just 
learned it — a little war girl has arrived!'^ 

I hold the paper in my outstretched hand. Has 
the sun broken suddenly into the enemy's land? 
light and life on all the ruins? * * * 



a, WAR STORIES 

Springtime scatters the shuddering Aukuna 
dreariness. 

My little girl ! I have a little girl in my 
home! * * * 

You bring back my smile to me in a heavy 
time. * * * 

I gaze up at the sky and am silent. And far amd 
near the busy, noisy swarm of workers is silent. 
Every one looks up, seeking some point in the far 
sky. Officers and men, for a single heart-throb, 
listen as to a distant song from the lips of children 
and from a mother's lips, stand there and smile 
around me in blissful pensiveness, as if there were 
no longer an enemy. Every one seems to feel the 
sun, the sun of olden happiness. 

And yet it had merely chanced that on the Ger- 
man Rhine, in an old castle lost amid trees, a dear 
little German girl was born. 

The following is written from the front by Corp. 
T. Trainer: 

We have had German cavalry thrown at us six 
times in the last four hours, and each time it has 
been a different body, so that they must have 
plenty to spare. There is no eight hours for 
work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for 
play with us, whatever the Germans may do. 

The strain is beginning to tell on them more 
than on us, and you can see by the weary faces and 
trembling hands that they are beginning to break 
down. 

One prisoner taken by the French near Courtrai 
sobbed for an hour as though his heart were 
broken, his nerves were so much shaken by what 
he had been through. The French are fighting 



WAR STOEIES 4a 

hard all round us with a grit and go that will 
carry them through. 

Have you ever seen a little man fighting a 
great, big, hulking giant who keeps on forcing the 
little chap about the place until the giant tires 
himself out, and then the little one, who has kept 
his wind, knocks him over? That's how the fight- 
ing here strikes me. 

We are dancing about round the big German 
Army, but our turn will come. Our commanders 
know their business, and we shall come out on top 
all right. 

Sergt. Major McDermott does not write under 
ideal literary conditions, but his style is mone the 
worse for the inspiration furnished by the shriek- 
ing shell. 

I am writing to you with the enemy's shells 
bursting and screaming overhead ; but God knows 
when it will be posted, if at all. 

We are waiting for something to turn np to be 
shot at, but up to now, though their artillery has 
been making a fiendish row all along our front, 
we haven't seen as much as a mosquito's eyelash 
to shoot at. That's why I am able to write, and 
some of us are able to take a bit of rest while the 
others keep *^ dick." 

There is a fine German airship hanging around 
like a great blue bottle up in the sky, and now and 
then our gunners are trying to bring it down, but 
they haven't done it yet. 

It's the quantity, not the quality of the Geiman 
shells that is having e:ffect on us, and it's not so 
muck the actual damage to life as the nerve-rack- 
ing row that counts for so much. 

Town^aen who are used to the noise and roar 
of streets can stand it better than the countrymen, 
and I tkiak you will find that by far the fittest men 



44 WAE STORIES 

are those of regiments mainly recruited in tlie big 
cities. 

A London lad near me says it^s no worse tlian 
the roar of motor 'buses and other traffic in the 
city on a busy day. 

GAELIC SPIRIT IRREPRESSIBLE. 

The Gaelic spirit has not deserted Sergt. T. 
Cahill under fire. He writes : 

The Red Cross girleens with their purty faces 
and their sweet ways are as good men as most of 
us, and better than some of us. They are not sup- 
posed to venture into the firing line at all, but 
they get there all the same, and devil a one of us 
durst turn them away. 

Mike Clancy is that droll with his larking and 
bamboozling the Germans that he makes us nearly 
split our sides laughing at him and his ways. 

Yesterday he got a stick and put a cap on it so 
that it peeped up above the trench just like a man, 
and then the Germans kept shooting away at it 
until they must have used up tons of ammunition. 

But Mike Clancy was not the only practical 
joker in the trenches, as the following from a 
wounded soldier shows: 

Our men have just had their papers from home, 
and have noted, among other things, that ** Busi- 
ness as UsuaP' is the motto of patriotic shop- 
keepers. 

In last week's hard fighting the Wiltshires, 
holding an exposed position, ran out of ammuni- 
tion, and had to suspend firing until a party 
brought fresh supplies across the open imder a 
heavy fire. 

Then the wag of the regiment, a Cockney, pro- 
duced a biscuit tin with ** Business as Usual" 



WAR STORIES' 45 

crudely printed on it, and set it up before the 
trenches as a hint to the Germans that the fight 
could now be resumed on more equal terms. 

Finally the tin had to be taken in because it was 
proving such a good target for the German rifle- 
men, but the joker was struck twice in rescuing it. 

A wounded private of the Buffs relates how an 
infantryman got temporarily separated from his 
regiment at Mons, and lay concealed in a trench 
while the Germans prowled around. 

Just when he thought they had left him for good 
ten troopers left their horses at a distance and 
came forward on foot to the trench. 

The hidden infantryman waited until they were 
half way up tl^e slope, and then sprang out of his 
hiding place with a cry of ^^Now, lads, give them 
hell!'' Without waiting to see the *4ads'' the 
Germans took to their heels. 

HIGHLAND KILT A POOR UNIFORM. 

Why Highland kilts are not the ideal uniform 
for modern warfare is concisely summed up by 
Private Barry: 

Most of the Highlanders are hit in the legs. 
* * * It is because of tartan trews and hose, 
which are more visible at a distance than any 
other part of their dress. Bare calves also show 
up in sunlight. 

Private McGlade, writing to his aged mother 
in County Monaghan, bears witness to the oft- 
made assertion that the German soldiers object to 
a bayonet charge : 

I am out of it with a whole skin, though we were 
all beat up, as you might expect after four days 
of the hardest soldiering you ever dreamed of. 
We had our share of the fighting, and I am glad 



46 WAE STOEIES 

to say we accounted for our share of the German 
trash, who are a poor lot when it comes to a good, 
square ruction in the open. 

We tried hard to get at them many times, but 
they never would wait for us when they saw the 
bright bits of steel at the business end of our 
rifles. 

Some of our finest lads are now sleeping their 
last sleep in Belgium, but, mother dear, you can 
take your son's word for it that for every son of 
Ireland who will never come back there are at 
least three Germans who will never be heard of 
again. 

Before leaving Belgium we arranged with a 
priest to have masses said for the souls of our 
dead chums, and we scraped together what odd 
money we had, but his Eeverence wouldn't hear 
of it, taking our money for prayers for the relief 
of the brave lads who had died so far from the old 
land to rid Belgian soil of the unmannerly German 
scrubs. 

Some of the Germans don't understand why 
Irishmen should fight so hard for England, but 
that just shoY/s how little they know about us. 

Seven British soldiers who after the fighting 
round Mons last week became detached from their 
regiments and got safely through the German 
lines arrived in Folkestone to-day from Boulogne. 
They belonged to the Irish Eifles, Eoyal Scots, 
Somerset Light Infantry, Middlesex and Ennis- 
killen Fusiliers, and presented a bedraggled ap- 
pearance, wearing old garments given them by the 
French to aid their disguise. 

One of the seven, a Londoner, described the 
fight his regiment had with the Germans at a vil- 
lage near Maubeuge. 

The British forces were greatly outnumbered 



WAR STORIES 47 

hj tke Germans, but held their ground for twenty- 
four feours, inflicting very heavy loss on tbe en- 
emy, although suffering severely itself. 

He declared that the Germans held women up in 
front of them when attacking. *^It was worse 
than savage warfare. ' ' 

Paddy, an Irishman, stated that the soldiers got 
little or no food during the fighting. *'When we 
got our bacon cooking the Germans attacked us.'' 

A Scotsman of the party said he saw a hospital 
flying the Red Gross near Mons destroyed by 
Bhrapnel. ^^When we were ordered to retire," he 
continued, *^we did so very reluctantly. But we 
did mot swear. Things are so serious there, it 
makes you feel religious. ' ' 

FROM MEN IN THE FLEET. 

Eqmally interesting are some of the letters from 
Men with the fleet. Tom Thorne, writing to his 
mother in Sussex, says : 

Before we started ^ghting we were all very 
nervous, but after we joined in we were all happy 
and most of us laughing till it was finished. Then 
we all sobbed and cried. 

Even if I never come back, don't think I've died 
a painful death. Everything yesterday was as 
quick as lightning. 

We were in, action on Friday morning o:ff Heli- 
goland. I had a piece of shell as big as the palm 
of my hand go through my trousers, and as my 
trouser legs were blowing in the breeze I think I 
^as very lucky. ^ 

A ^nroom officer in a battle cruiser writes : 
Gibe particular ship we were engaged with was 
in a pitiful plight when we had finished with her 



48 WAE STOEIES 

— ^her funnels shot away, masts tottering, great 
gaps of dayligM in her sides, smoke and flame 
belching from her everywhere. She speedily 
heeled over and sank like a stone, stern first. So 
far as is known, none of her crew was saved. She 
was game to the last, let it be said, her flag flying* 
till she sank, her gnns barking till they could bark 
no more. 

Althoiigh we ourselves su:ffered no loss, we had 
some very narrow escapes. Three torpedoes were 
observed to pass us, one within a few feet. Four- 
inch shells, too, fell short or were ahead of us. 
The sea was alive with the enemy's submarines, 
which, however, did us no damage. They should 
not be underrated, these Germans. That cruiser 
did not think, apparently, of surrender. 

What naval warfare seems like to the ** black 
squad" imprisoned in the engineroom is described 
by an engineer of the Laurel, who went through, 
the ^ ^ scrap ' ' off Heligoland. Writing to his wife 
he says : 

It was a terribly anxious time for us, I can tell 
you, as we stayed down there keeping the engines 
going at their top speed in order to cut off the 
Germans from their fleet. We could hear the aw- 
ful din around and the scampering of the tars on 
deck as they rushed about from point to point, 
and we knew what was to the fore when we caught 
odd glimpses of the stretcher bearers with their 
ghastly burdens. 

We heard the shells crashing against the sides 
of the ship or shrieking overhead as they passed 
harmlessly into the water, and we knew that at 
any moment one might strike us in a vital part 
and send us below for good. 

It is ten times harder on the men whose duty 
is in the engineroom than for those on deck taking 



WAR STORIES 49 

part in the fighting, for they, at least, have the ex- 
citement of the fight, and if the ship is struck they 
have more than a sporting chance of escape. We 
have none. 

FROM A DYING FRENCHMAN. 

The most dramatic letters come from the 
French. On one of the fields of battle, when the 
Red Cross soldiers were collecting the wounded 
after a heavy engagement, there was found a half 
sheet of notepaper, on which was written a mes- 
sage for a woman, of which this is the translation : 

Sweetheart : Fate in this present war has 
treated us more cruelly than many others. If I 
have not lived to create for you the happiness of 
which both our hearts dreamed, remember that 
my sole wish is now that you should be happy. 
Forget me. Create for yourself some happy home 
that may restore to you some of the greater pleas- 
ures of life. For myself, I shall have died happy 
in the thought of your love. My last thought has 
been for you and for those I leave at home. Ac- 
cept this, the last kiss, from him who loved you. 

Writing from a fortress on the frontier, a 
French officer says the Colonel in command was 
asked to send a hundred men to stiffen some reser- 
vist artillery in the middle of France, far away 
from the war area. , He called for volunteers. 
*^Some of you who have got wives and children, 
or old mothers, fall out,'' he said. Not a man 
stirred. ''Come, come," the Colonel went on. 
' ' No one will dream of saying you funked. Noth- 
ing of that kind. Fall out!" Again the ranks 
were unbroken. The Colonel blew his nose vio- 
lently. He tried to speak severely, but his voice 
failed him. He tried to frown, but somehow it 



50 WAR STORIES 

tnrned into a smile. ''Very well,'^ lie said, **y#¥i 
must draw lots. ' ' And that was what they did. 



*** 



Twenty-two grandsons and great-grandsons of 
Queen Victoria are under arms in the war, and all 
but five of them are fighting with the Germana. 



* * 



The Cnnard liners Saxonia and Ivernia were 
converted into prison ships by the British. The 
German prisoners were delighted with the trans- 
fer to the roomy cabins, where they could keep 
warm and dry in contrast to the unfavorable con- 
ditions under which they lived in the camps at tlae 
Newbury Race Course. ^ 

Reindeer meat and lamb, imported from lee- 
land, found their way into the markets of Berlin 
since the war began. The reindeer meat is a nov- 
elty and the supply is plentiful. The supply of 
game in the markets of Berlin ran short long be- 
fore, since hunting had almost ceased. Poultry in 
the markets was still in great quantities, although 
eggs were not so plentiful, as the supply usually 
comes from Galicia, which v^as then overrun by 
the Russians. ^ 

A sale of small Belgian fiags in Paris and 
throughout France brought about $40,000 for the 
benefit of the Belgian refugees. The sale was pro- 
longed in the outlying provinces. There was 
every manifestation of enthusiasm. 

* * 

Chace gay Ostend is desolated. The city lives in 
SCA atmosphere of fear. The spectre of famine is 



WAR STOEIES 51 

contiBnally before the inhabitants, who subsist on 
wounded, emaciated horses purchased at $4 a head 
from the Germans. They are the only meat the 
people can buy. There are no vegetables, a^d 
scarcely any coffee and no tea. Many convicts 
from prisons in Germany, distinguished by their 
shorn heads, are employed in grave digging work 
abomt the dty. ^ 

The hygiene committee of the French Chamber 
of Deputies has won over the veto of General Jof- 
fre that a number of committeemen be allowed to 
inspect the hospitals at the front with a view to 
certain reforms. General Joffre opposed the pro- 
posal. The Minister of War, however, agreed 
that twelve of the committee should go on the in- 
spection trip. ^ 



* * 



TJiat the battle of Crouy was one of the blood- 
iest engagements of the war is demonstrated by 
the stories told by wounded soldiers reachifig 
Paris to-day. An officer gives this thrilling ac- 
count of the affray: 

*^ After our successful advantage the Germans 
counter attacked with fearful violence. How 
strongly they were reinforced is sho^vn by the fact 
that they were 40,000 against less than 10,000 
French. They first drove us from Vregny to 
Crouy, then, because further reinforcements were 
still reaching them, we were compelled to quit 
Crouy, Bucy, Moncel, Sainte Marguerite and 
Missy. 

^' These attacks certainly Ifit us hard, but our 
losses are not comparable with those of the Ger- 
mans, for we killed an inconceivable number of 
them. A battery covering our retreat alone an- 
nihilated two battalions of Germans who ad- 



52 WAE STOEIES 

vanced, as usual, in a mass. We could not resist, 
so we left a small rearguard force with the mis- 
sion to hold on to the last man so that the bulk of 
our 10,000 men could recross the Aisne. 

^^This force took cover behind an old wall and 
belched fire on the advancing Germans until its 
ammunition was exhausted. The Germans man- 
aged to reach the other side of the wall, and even 
grasped the barrels of our rifles thrust through 
gaps. ^ Surrender ! ' they cried. ' We won 't harm 
you. ' But we continued mowing them down with 
six mitrailleuses. The carnage v/as frightful, and 
that moment a shell splinter struck me. 

*^A shell fire directed on our positions in the 
Valley de Chivres was fearful. Those of our 
troops who escaped said it was a continuous rain 
of Jack Johnsons, which are impossible to dodge. 

^'Next day the Germans tried to pursue us 
across the Aisne, but our artillery repulsed two 
determined attacks, decimating several regiments, 
which were forced to retreat to Moncel. ' ' 

# * 

It is a curious thing that shell explosions always 
make hens lay. Just whether it 's shock or not no 
one is able to say as yet, but as soon as the soldiers 
see a stray chicken after a fusillade they make a 
dash for it in hopes of finding an egg. Some of the 
soldiers are suggesting running a poultry farm on 
the explosion system. ^ 

Petrograd reports that the German officers in 
command of the Turks induced the temperate Os- 
manlis to drink cognac before going into battle. 
Eussian soldiers assert that many Turks fell from 
dizziness before reaching the Eussian bayonets. 
Bo unused are many of the Turks to alcohol that 



WAR STORIES 53 

small quantities of the cognac completely befud- 
dled them. :j^ 

* * 

Kaiser Wilhelm has presented the Turkish 
Government with a series of motion picture films 
of the Germans in battle along the Western front. 
These pictures will be reproduced in Constanti- 
nople in public and are hoped to be a stimulant to 
enthusiasm in the Turkish capital. 

* # 

Switzerland's neutrality has thus far cost her 
$22,000,000. This includes the expenses of mobi- 
lization along the frontiers and other purely mili- 
tary expenditures. It is an enormous sacrifice for 
the Swiss people, but the spirit in which it is being 
borne is the most striking proof of the determina- 
tion of the country to remain neutral. 

* * 

Efforts are being made by the Washington Hu- 
mane Society to have laws enacted prohibiting the 
exportation of horses and mules to the war. The 
life of a horse or mule at the front in Europe 
varies between three days and three weeks. The 
life of the beast depends upon the service to which 
it is put. . 

Eight Belgian heroes prevented the Germans 
from piercing a weak spot in the Allies ' line near 
Dixmude. A patrol of eight Belgians with a ma- 
chine gun saw a column of Germans advancing. 
The patrol took shelter in a deserted farm house. 
Not until the German column was one hundred 
yards away did the Belgians open fire. Then the 
machine gun shot a spray of death into the col- 
lunn, whose front rank just seemed to melt t'^ 



U WAR STORIES 

gr^ftftd* The Germans pressed on brarelf , their 
oi&cers mrging them with hoarse criee. But dis- 
cipline had to bow to death, and the first msh was 
stayed. Behind their rough shelter the Belgians 
fired steadily, though outnumbered twenty to one. 
F(^r two hours the unequal fight continued, and 
still the Belgians continued to pick off individual 
G^'mans or melted down any threatening rush 
with a shower of flame and death from the ma- 
chine guns. When relief finally came three of the 
Belgians were dead and the other five desperately 

wounded. \ 

* # 

Aa order has been issued expelling al German 
and Austrian subjects between the ages of sixteen 
aad. sixty from Petrograd and its enyirons, and 
froaa tiaose Russian provinces borderimg on the 
Gulf of Finland and the Baltic, including the Gulf 
of Riga. Drastic measures will be taken with 
those who evade this order. All Genaaas and 
AustrianB found in the forbidden districts will be 
dealt with as spies. ^ 

The British War Office is now urging the wom- 
en of the Empire to send their husband to war. 
lioadon newspapers printed the following adver- 
tisement : * ^ To the Women : Do you realize that 
oae word, * Go, ' from you may send an^Mier man 
to fight for our King and our country! When the 
war is <)Ter and your husband or yomr son is 
a^ed, ^ What did you do in the great wart* is he 
goi«g to hang his head because you would not let 
kka go f Women of England, do your dmty ! Send 
yofur men to-day to join our glorious army. God 
Saye ihe King P ' ^ 

A braT© young wife travelled from Paris to the 



WAR STORIES 55 

Belgian firing line to see her husband, but was 
told that such was impossible because he was in 
the trenches. Noticing that she wept, a Belgian 
officer nearby told the woman to dry her tears. 
He then telephoned to the trenches. In an hour 
the French artilleryman appeared and rnshed into 
his wife's arms. ^^You must thank that Belgian 
officer — he has a heart of gold,'^ said the wife to 
her husband, pointing to the officer who had be- 
friended her. '*Hush,'' whispered the soldier, 
*'he is the King of the Belgians.'' 

* 

One of Italy 's best known military critics, while 
manifesting high esteem for the strategy of Gen- 
eral von Hindenburg, severely criticized a certain 
feature of the Marshal's tactics. Some days later 
he received a parcel from Germany containing a 
fine fac-simile of the famous General's baton, ac- 
companied by a note asking the critic to accept 
the baton and come and have a try at the job of 
beating the Russians if he thought himself more 
capable of doing it than Von Hindenburg. 



* 



A British soldier made somewhat of a name for 
himself by refusing to allow General Joffre to 
enter the house used as headquarters owing to 
the fact that the famous French General had no 
permit from the English General, whose orders 
were to allow nobody whatever to enter without 
it. General Joffre was not upset, and went off 
with his aide, who obtained the necessary permit. 






The official aviation reports show that 135 
deaths occurred in the French aero service be- 



56 WAR STOEIES 

tween the beginning of the war and January 1. 
This number includes observers, passengers, pu- 
pils and pilots. ^ 

Every precaution has been taken to guard 
-against possible attack by German aeroplanes on 
the Palais Bourbon during the session of Parlia- 
ment in Paris. Three French aeroplanes flew 
constantly in the vicinity of the building during 
the session. ^ 



# # 



A brilliant charge by French Alpine troops on 
skis down the snow-covered slopes of Bonhomme, 
on the Alsatian frontier, is the latest thing in war- 
fare. Under a heavy fire from the Germans the 
Alpine troops climbed to the summit. Then they 
charged down the side of the mountain with the 
speed of the wind, firing their rifles as they sped 
along. These Alpine men are so skilful on skis 
that they can fight as they slide along at break- 
neck speed. Many of them were dropped by Ger- 
man gunfire during the charge, but as the outrun- 
ners drew near the Germans broke and fled. 



* * 



That the Kaiser has Breton blood in his veing 
is the latest assertion of Paris newspapers. To 
prove their assertion the Kaiser's ancestry is 
traced back to 1547 to the head of a princely 
Breton family. 



* * 



Five dollars for officers and $2.50 for non-com- 
missioned officers are the bounties placed on the 
heads of French leaders, according to German 
prisoners. The soldiers receive these amounts for 
every officer killed. Many bounties have been 
paid. 



WAE STOEIES 57 

General Grossetti, whose name matches Ms 
physical proportions, has won fame by his habit 
of sitting in an armchair when duty calls him to 
the firing line. His contempt for death has be- 
come proverbial and won for him the admiration 
of a Japanese journalist, who compared him to 
the Samurai. Once he rallied a wavering regi- 
ment by taking a seat, amid a hail of shells, be- 
fore the trenches the regiment was defending. 






There are two plausible explanations of the 
mystery that still surrounds the deposal of Gen- 
eral von Moltke, former Chief of Staff in the 
Kaiser ^s war council. One story is that when von 
Kluck was making his fierce drive to the very 
gates of Paris, von Moltke was for having him 
continue on to the coast. The Kaiser flatly de- 
cided against von Moltke 's strategy — ^which was 
thoroughly justified by subsequent events. It 
places von Moltke, however, in the untenable posi- 
tion of one whose mere presence is the silent re- 
proach of ' ' I told you so. ' ' The other explanation 
is that von Moltke was too lavish in squandering 
the lives of his men for petty gains, paying fancy 
prices in blood for a few yards. The Over War 
Lord finally called a halt. 






The castle of the Duke de Tallyrand, husband 
of Miss Anna Gould, of New York, in East Prus- 
sia, has been occupied by Russians. The Duke 
is acting as a military chauffeur in the French 



army. 



The new German super-submarine has just com- 
pleted successful trial runs in the Bay of Heligo- 



5S WAR STORIES 

land, ^is giant submarine is of the type that 
carries three months' supplies, which does not 
necessitate her putting into port or having re- 
course to the parent ship. There have been ru- 
mors that the Germans intended landing mem on 
the coast of Britain by means of this sort of sub- 
marine. ^ 

The fear of an attack by the Germans has about 
worn out in Paris. The gates are no longer closed 
and the Parisians can hereafter take their strolls 
along the avenues of the Bois. 

Following a mutiny in the Turkish army seven- 
teen officers who distinguished themselves in the 
Balkan war have been shot. 

Through inoculation the ravages of typhoid 
fever among the British troops have been checked. 
Not a single death has occurred among those thus 
inoculated. ^ 

That thousands of Russian women are rejoicing 
over the fact that the sale of vodka has been pro- 
hibited by the Russian Government was the news 
brought by Mrs. Anna Omohundro, who arrived 
on the Scandinavian-American liner Oscar 11. 
Mrs. Omohundro, who is an American woman and 
a widow, has been living for the last three years 
in Petrograd and Moscow, where her brother is 
the agent for the International Harvester Com- 
pany. 

^^For the first time,'' said she, '*many Russian 
wives find their homes livable. It appears that 
the prohibition on vodka has worked wonderful 



WAR STORIES 59 

changes ia a sliort time. I have heard @f kun- 
dreds of eases where men became home loving 
and industrious because they were unable to get 
the fiery liquor which turned their brains, 

* ^ There was one case in my own home m Mos- 
cow. A woman servant came to me and fell on her 
knees and said she wished to leave our service. I 
asked her why she wished to go and she said: 
'For the first time I am happy in my home and 
wish to go there. My husband is no longer made 
crazy by vodka. He is kind to me and I wish to 
keep the home for him. ' 

'* Of course the cases of reformation that I know 
of personally are among the men who from one 
cause or another have not joined the Russian 
armies. I believe, however, that the beme^t ex- 
tends throughout the nation.'' 

Twenty-seven Miles in Sleighs, 

Mrs. Omohundro made a journey of several 
hundred miles to get out of Russia from Petro- 
grad to Stockholm, part of which was a trip in 
sleighs of twenty-seven miles from Tornio, in 
Finland, to Korning, Sweden. This trip took 
about four hours and the ride was through the 
rather weird twilight of midday in the northern 
latitudes. 

An amusing story was told of the stop at Tor- 
nio, on the border, where the members of the 
party were searched. Even the women did not 
escape inspection by the Russian soldiers and all 
postcards and suspicious looking papers were con- 
fiscated. In the party was an English Jew who 
was returning to London after selling omt his 
business in Moscow. It was noticed by some of 
the trareiiers that the returning merchant, whose 



60 WAE STOEIES 

name was Colien, frequently bouglit many boxes 
of matches. 

When the search took place at Tornio the many 
boxes of matches in Cohen's baggage did not seem 
to excite any suspicion among the Russian troop- 
ers. After the party had passed over the border 
Cohen opened up box after box and from the bot- 
tom of each took a compact roll of money. He 
had concealed about $12,000 in this way. 

**You see,'' he explained, ^^I could not afford 

to take any chances. ^^ ^ 

* * 

A French officer who came under heavy fire 
while carrying several cases of champagne across 
an exposed place in his lines to a hospital nearby 
wrote thus to a friend : ^ * For the first time during 
the war I was afraid — terribly so. No one could 
have been more terrified. I wasn 't afraid of being 
killed, but if I had been hit while carrying the 
champagne from a vacant house everyone would 
have said, ^ Served the looter right. ' Who would 
have believed that I was taking it to a hospital!" 

A German living in St. Louis has twenty-three 
nephews in the Kaiser's army, three of whom 
have been decorated with the Iron Cross for 
bravery. Two have been wounded in action. A 
French Senator has given his three sons for 
France. One was killed in Alsace, another storm- 
ing breastworks on the Aisne, and another in 
Africa. 

A NINE DAYS' PURGATORY. 

A correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle 
in Flanders telegraphs the following : 

'*The Germans had been attacked and driven 



WAE STOEIES 61 

back during a certain engagement to their 
trenches 400 yards from ours. Between the lines 
a German officer fell, wounded by a bayonet. He 
was nearer the British trenches than the German, 
but whenever our men began to go out to carry in 
the wounded man the German snipers got busy. 
They would neither succor their tortured comrade 
nor let the British do it. 

**For nine days the wounded officer lingered. 
Finally a British non-commissioned officer and one 
or two privates crawled to the fallen man at night 
and brought him in. For nine days he had lain 
there, pierced by a bayonet from breast to back, 
without food or drink. He was unconscious when 
rescued and died soon afterward. During his 
purgatory the gallant man, unable even to crawl, 
had kept a diary, a record of physical and mental 
anguish borne like a noble gentleman. On him 
was found a photograph of his wife and two little 
children. 

^*A British officer translated the diary to our 
men and with a catch in his voica held up the 
German officer as a hero to whom may should bow 
their heads in reverence. The.4iary was sent to 
headquarters, and perhaps ha^ by now found its 
way with the picture to the wia6w)of this man.'' 



ii 



A GALLANT 



The German artillery is extremely efficient and 
accurate and German soldiersfEhoroughly trained, 
is the statement of an English Wigadier-general 
published in the London Times, inwhich he says : 

'*We are having a hard time in the trenches, 
for we are cannonaded day and night. The in- 
fantry fire was devastating, since our opponents 
are sharpshooters who aim successfully at every 



62 WAR -STOEIES 

moTmg head. The German artillery is better tham 
I had thought possible. We are never safe from 
it and never know where we should conceal our- 
selves, our horses and other equipments. I liave 
been attacked twice, and both times it cost me a 
large number of good men and officers. I am 
shocked about the newspaper reports which speak 
of the inferiority' of the German soldiers. Do 
not believe it ! The German soldier is splendid in 
every way. His courage, his thoroughness, his 
organization, as well as the equipment and bear- 
ing of the troops, challenge comparison. The 
German soldiers always take the offensive. I 
have the greatest admiration for them, and so has 
every one who knows them. ' ' 

NOT ALL HATE! 

Chancellor Lloyd George has contributed a mes- 
sage to the London MetJiodist Times, in which he 
says: 

'^I recently visited one of the battlefields of 
France. I saw in a village being shelled by Ger- 
man guns a prisoner of war just being brought 
into the French line. He was in a motor ©ar 
under guard. He was wounded and looked ill and 
in pain. 

* * The French General with whom I had gone to 
the front went up to the wounded Prussian and 
told him he need not worry; he would be taken 
straight to the hospital and looked after as if he 
were one of our own men. The Prussian replied, 
^We treated your wounded in exactly the same 
way. ' 

**It was a curious rivalry under these condi- 
tions; for you could hear the ^wizzle' of the Ger- 
man shells and the shuddering crack with which 



WAR STORIES 63 

they exploded, dealing out death and destruction 
in the French trenches close by. We were in 
sight of a powerful French battery whick was pre- 
paring to send its deadly messengers into the 
Prussian ranks. 

**A little further on I marvelled that this ex- 
hibition of good will among men who were sworn 
foes should be possible amid such surroundings, 
"^tii my eyes happened to wander down a lane 
w^jbre I saw a long row of wagons, each marked 
with a great red cross. Then I knew who had' 
taught these brave men the lesson of humanity 
that will gradually, surely overthrow the reign of 
hate. Christ did not die in vain.'' 

FOUGHT TO LAST MAN. 

An excellent idea of the vicious attack by the 
Australian cruiser Sydney that ended the career 
of the German cruiser Emden is gained in a letter 
from an officer of the Indian army in Ceylon, 
where the Emden' s wounded were taken. He 
writes : 

*'The Sydney was warned by a wireless mes- 
sage from the Cocos Islands station to put on full 
speed; she made twenty-nine knots. When she 
sighted the Emden the latter was anchored, but 
came out to give battle. 

^*The Emden got in the first three shots. Only 
one landed, as after that the Sydney took care to 
keep out of range. The larger guns fired 600 
rounds, and after one and a half hours of action, 
during which the ships covered fifty-six miles in 
manoeuvring, the Sydney forced the Emden to 
beach herself, her steering gear having broken. 

* ^ The Sydney then put up a signal to surrender, 
but as all on deck except three had been killed this 



64 WAE STOEIES 

was not done. The Sydney accordingly gave her 
two more broadsides as she lay on the beach. 

^*When the Germans succeeded in showing the 
white flag the Sydney went off to sink the collier. 
After this she returned to the E widen and sent 
parties to help the survivors. It is said the Em- 
den was a perfect shambles. She had nearly 200 
killed. 

* ^ The Germans had torn up their flag and threw 
it into the sea. ' ' 

THE SMILE IS GONE. 

Entrained Austrian and German troops who 
came from the Yser, presumably on the way east, 
were a sight very comforting for the people of 
Brussels, on account of the depressed bearing of 
the men. Their uniforms were soiled and tat- 
tered, and they looked worried. The spectators 
remembered the former haughty and ardent look 
of the same men. 

The troops wore flowers in their helmets, and 
had written on the car sides ^^To St. Petersburg,'' 
but they could not raise a single * ^ Hoch ! ' ' among 
them. 

The wounded continue to pour into Ghent. The 
town council is so pressed for money it has im- 
posed taxes on beer, fuel, petroleum, and yeast. 

WHIPPED FOE EOBBING GIEL. 

When the Cossacks raided Eopezica, according 
to the Cracow Nova Reforma, they robbed the 
house in which a Polish girl was housekeeper. 
The girl hurried to the commander of the Cos- 
sacks, who lived at a hotel. 

**I told him my trouble," she said, ** whereupon 
he asked me: ^Are you a Pole or a Jew?' I re- 



WAR STOEIES 65 

j^ied that I was a Pole. ^Well, then, I shall go 
and see these fellows myself.' 

*^He took a nagaika (whip) and accompanied 
me to the house of my employer. 

**Then he called to the Cossacks, who had in the 
meantime broken open a trunk and were just in 
the act of taking various things away, to come 
upstairs and showed every one what position he 
was to take, after which he whipped their faces 
and chests until they began to bleed. I screamed 
with horror. He repeated the procedure. Then 
he asked me : 

** *Bo you want these fellows shotT to which I 
naturally answered ^No.' 

** Thereupon he took the Cossacks to a room,, 
where he whipped them once more. 

**In the evening he sent for me, and asked me 
what articles had been ruined and what stolen, 
whereupon he commanded the Cossacks to re- 
turn all articles they had stolen. In order to pre- 
vent another theft, he gave me a Cossack, who 
watched the house until the next morning. What 
would have been the fate of t^e house had I been 
a Jewess I dare not imagine. ' ' 

THE COEPORAL'S TROPHY. 

Here is a little incident of the daily life of Gen- 
eral Pau, a hero of the Franco-Prussian war, in 
which he lost an arm : 

A dozen French infantrymen, mud-begrimed,, 
were resting in a drizzling rain on the wayside 
under the dripping trees. The Corporal sits and 
tries in vain to light his pipe, at intervals singing 
lustily. 

Suddenly the Corporal stands erect; his pipe is 
hidden behind his back, and he makes a hasty 



m WAR STORIES 

salute. Througli the fog and rain one of tlie three 
great leaders of the French army has appeared. 

'*Why do you not wear your capf asks Gen- 
eral Pau. 

**I have lost my cap, General.'* 

*^ Where did you lose it?*' 

*'When we were attacked in the woods this 
morning. A branch knocked it off, and I was too 
much in a hurry to go back and get it. It is gone. ' * 

*^Take my cap.'' 

The Corporal fears the end of things; he will 
be punished for losing his cap. 

'*Take it, I tell you, and wear it," says the 
General. 

And the humble Corporal does as he is told and 
becomes resplendent, like the sun in the cap, em- 
blazoned with the glorious, golden oak leaves. 
The General draws rein and canters away. 

Since that day the Corporal marches along the 
country roads to the frontier, proudly wearing 
the cap of General Pau. 

^^The General himself told me to wear it," he 
says to those who protest. **I obey the General's 
orders, and the cap stays on my head. ' ' 

The General knows his soldiers, and the world 
may understand why this tired, bedraggled and 
weary army goes on marching and fighting and 
dying for its commanders. 

WANT MORE THAN '^ THREE CHEERS." 

The Saxon Minister of the Interior has been 
obliged to direct the following warning to farm- 
ers of the south German kingdom, according to a 
Dresden dispatch in the Frankfurter Zeitung: 

**The farmer has especial cause to thank the 
German army that he can still gather in his bar- 



WAR STORIES 67 

vest and cultivate his fields, tliat his fields have 
not been laid waste, and that the walls of his 
farmhouse still remain standing and intact. For 
this reason, however, he ought all the more to 
show Ms gratitude by his acts and not grumble 
when sacrifices are demanded of him, as of all 
others. 

**T]ius, for instance, we hear of individual 
cases, such as at the time of the mustering of 
horses, when certain farmers demanded angrily 
why they were called upon to sacrifice anything, 
and gave expression to their anger because, in 
the interests of the common weal, they were asked 
to refrain from demanding exorbitant prices for 
their products. In this manner the patriotic sen- 
timents of many farmers seem rather confusing. 

^ * It is indeed not enough merely to belong to a 
military society and wear a festive black coat on 
the occasion of celebrating the birthday of the 
Kaiser and King, or to drink at comfortable ease 
in a cosy tavern an occasion-al glass of beer, pledg- 
ing the health of our troops. The main thing is 
to give freely and gladly also of one's property 
and fortune.'* 

' * WILLIAM AS JOVIAL AS EVER. ' ' 

^*If the Emperor does not happen to be else- 
where, he is present at nearly every council with- 
out, however, showing the slightest desire of as- 
serting his personal views," says Cabasino- 
Renda, an Italian newspaper correspondent in a 
letter in the Giornale d^Italia. **He takes part in 
the council as any other General does, without 
laying claim to any decisive voice even in ques- 
tions in which he is specially competent. 

**It is well known, for instance, that William 



68 WAR STOEIES 

11. is a distinguished tactician. At a recent ineet- 
ing of the Great General Staff a purely tactical 
problem was discussed and was solved in opposi- 
tion to the Kaiser ^s views. His Majesty simply 
remarked: *I think differently, but, after all, tac- 
tics are a matter of opinion. ' 

<<Yery frequently he goes to see the first line 
troops, and in such days and nights he has to 
suffer a great deal of privation, for he takes noth- 
ing with him and moves about like a simple Gen- 
eral. His retinue comprises only eleven aides-de- 
camp and functionaries, and his physician in ordi- 
nary. Dr. von Ilberg. Small, too, is the number 
of his riding and carriage horses, and of his autos, 
which are painted gray. 

* * The Kaiser and his villa are under the strict- 
est police protection, yet William II. likes to go 
out unattended, as if he were in Potsdam. Re- 
peatedly I saw him having fun with the children, 
and he looked as jovial as ever." 

* 
* * 

The Kaiser has published the following injunc- 
tions for economy in the use of food, especially 
bread : ^ * Respect your daily bread ; then you will 
always have it, however long the war lasts. Eat 
war bread known as Letter K, which is satisfying 
and as nourishing as other kinds. Cook potatoes 
in their skins. Give animals no bread or corn, but 
save them the scraps. ' ' ^ 

According to a person who has the confidence 
©f the Belgian officials, a number of the art mas- 
terpieces of Antwerp were placed in waterproof 
containers and sunk in the Scheldt by the Bel- 
gians before the capture of the city by the Ger- 
mans. 



WAR STORIES QB 

North of Rheims the Germans have built qa 
iiBderground town. Ten thousand men live there 
and have constructed long corridors, huge halls, 
bedrooms, fully equipped offices, with typewriters 
and telephones, and a concert hall where Wag- 
nerian music is played daily for the officers. 



At some points during the German retreat to- 
ward Strykow, the German dead were piled not 
less than a yard high. Polish peasants spent 
days buryiQg the bodies. Most of the dead were 
frozen. Thousands of wounded Germans froze to 
death before help could reach them. 

* 

The State of Georgia has been stripped of 
mules for the British army in France. Every 
negro who has a long-eared mule, not too anti- 
quated, has offered the beast for sale to the agents 
of the British Government. Some Southerners 
foresee danger in the heavy draft of mules from 
the South. ^ 

A French infantryman writing to a friend ia 
this country says: ^^At night we crawl forward 
and dig ourselves in. During the day we hide 
behind the mounds of earth we have thrown up 
and we fight foot for foot any attempts they make 
to advance. They do not like our cold steel, and 
many times we must give it to them. I cannot 
write any longer ; I must relieve a sentinel. * * 

* 
* * 

The Belgians adore their brave King, and he 
adores them. The democratic friendship between 
King and the common soldiers is amazing. It is 



70 



^AR STORIES 



quite customary for him to liand his cigarettes to 
them and take a light from them in return. He 
spends a portion of each day in the trenches with^ 
them. 



* 



A cigar presented by the German Emperor and 
by him to a gentleman living at Hambledon, Eng- 
land, was sold by auction in aid of the local Red 
Cross Hospital. The cigar brought $72.50, and is 
now the property of a firm of local butchers. 

* 

Wounded Russian officers in the Tiflis hospitals 
describe the extraordinary endurance of the 
Turks, who march barefooted through the snow 
and shoot standing and kneeling, but rarely from 
trenches. They only dread bayonet charges. The 
Turks are said to have lost very heavily. 

* * 

Great Britain is provisioning Gibraltar on a 
large scale. The shipments from this port of late 
include 141,265 bushels of wheat, 2,240 bags of 
refined sugar, and 1,400 bags of wheat flour. As 
yet, no explanation has appeared why England 
should make such plans. 

* 

A court-martial in France sentenced Louise 
Zach, a German woman, to serve six months in 
prison and pay a heavy fine, on the charge of 
using an American passport, which was obtained 
by a fraudulent declaration. The woman was a 
governess in the employ of an American family. 
She got a passport at Geneva by representing 
herself as the wife of an American named Appel; 
and on the strength of this came to Paris. 



WAR STORIES 71 

Enssia lias awarded the St. George cross to 
three boys, aged seventeen, fourteen, and thir- 
teen. The youngest is the son of an engineer in 
Warsaw, who has followed the army since the 
fighting at Lublin and carried cartridges under 
fire to the men in the trenches. He finally became 
a wonderful scout, and his reconnoitering resulted 
in the capture of ten heavy guns. 

The ledger of the national debt of France list- 
ing the names of the bondholders as distinguished 
from bonds payable to bearer, was brought to 
Paris again to-day from Bordeaux. It required 
ten cars to transport the ledger. The Germans 
had planned to seize this vast book and use it to 
exact indemnity. ^ 

The International Sunday School Association 
plans to send a Bible to every soldier in the war- 
ring armies in Europe. An appeal will be sent to 
every Sunday school in the country, each scholar 
being asked to contribute five cents he has earned. 






The Prince of Wales often goes incognito 
among the soldiers. He likes to get among the 
men, and the other day he was found talking to a 
wounded sergeant and half a dozen privates to 
whom the sergeant was explaining the methods 
of snipers. A messenger came up and said some- 
thing to the Prince, who turned round and wished 
the men, **Good-by and good luck!" and then 
went off. 

A minute later the soldiers who had been stand- 
ing near by came up. 



72 WAE STORIES 

**Who was the grenadier chapf asked tlie ser- 
geant of one of the new arrivals. 

*^Why,'' replied the man, with a grin, ^^ don't 
yon know? It's only the Prince of Wales/' 

Three of the Foreign Legion with the French 
Army, all Americans, were doing sentry duty in 
front of the trenches when some cows came 
along. In the darkness one of the Americans 
crept forward to attack the cows, thinking they 
were Germans. Another section began firing and 
almost hit the Americans, who made their way 
back. They were greeted with laughs. 

SAVED BY AEROPLANE. 

A curious story of the Kaiser's youngest son, 
Prince Joachim, wafted away in an aeroplane 
when in danger of capture is told by a wounded 
Russian lieutenant. 

The officer says at the battle on November 24 
the Prince was in command of a German force 
which occupied a village after driving the Rus- 
sians from it. The Czar's troops, however, re- 
ceived reinforcements and reoccupied the place 
after a tough fight. 

When the Prince heard of the recapture, he 
jumped on a horse and galloped off after the re- 
tiring troops. 

Three aeroplanes were circling above to dis- 
cover and rescue the Prince. Two of the aviators 
who attempted to descend came into the Russian 
fire and were disabled. 

By this time th^ Prince was with a number of 
German troops completely surrounded by Rus- 
sians. His position seemed very critical. Just 



WAR STORIES 73 

m the nick of time the third machine came dow» 
near him and the Prince, taking a seat thereon, 
was borne away to safety. 

THE DEADLY AIR BOMB. 

A correspondent of the Central News in north- 
western France says: 

**In attempting to destroy a railroad station, a 
Taube aeroplane dropped two bombs on Haze- 
bronck. The first did no harm, but, on returning, 
the aeroplane dropped a bomb on a curious crowd 
gathered about a hole made by the first missile, 
killing ten and wounding five civilians, including 
women and children. *' 

A SUPER-BELGIAN. 

A quick command from General Bertrand at 
Haecht turned a retreat of the Belgian forces into 
an attack in much the same manner as that in 
which General Sheridan rallied the Union forces 
at the battle of Winchester in the Civil War. The 
story is printed in the Currier des Armes, the of- 
ficial Belgian soldiers' paper. 

General Bertrand, who succeeded General Le- 
man in command of the division which withstood 
the Germans at Liege, suddenly found his troops 
in retreat. 

'^Friends,'' he shouted, ^^youVe mistaken the 
road ! The enemy is in the other direction ! ' ' 

Electrified by their leader's words, the sol- 
diers wheeled about and charged the German 
troops with renewed vigor. 

On another occasion the general is declared to 
have stopped an attack of two Belgian companies 
upon each other by rashing between their lines 
and singing a popular ditty. Until they heard the 



74 WAE STORIES 

general's voice, the soldiers did not realize that 
they were firing on their own countrymen. 

The general is fifty-seven years old. He was 
a second lieutenant at twenty years, and became 
a major-general last March. 

EARE HONOR FOR JEWS. 

While previously soldiers of the Jewish faith 
have never attained any rank in the German 
army, now promotion is given wholesale. 

In the Prussian army alone, twelve Jews have 
just been promoted to be ofiicers ; in the Bavarian 
army another twelve, and one each in the Saxon 
and Wurttemberg armies. Seven hundred and 
ten Jews have received the Iron Cross, which 
some have refused to wear because it is the em- 
blem of the Christian faith. 

HORACE STIRS FRENCHMEN. 

A remarkable incident occurred, says the Paris 
Journal des BebatSy at the opening matinee of 
the Comedie Frangaise, when the old-fashioned 
Roman tragedy, ' ' Horace, ' ' was presented. 

Written in 1639, when France was fighting Ger- 
many, it contains numerous veiled allusions to the 
war and prophecies of successes afterward real- 
ized by Louis XIII. One such is the Sabine hero- 
ine 's appeal to Rome to spare her country and 
seek conquests further afield: ^^Hurl your bat- 
talions against the East ; plant your flags on the 
borders of the Rhine ! '' ' 

The Journal des Dehats says : 

' ^ At these words a shiver of excitement passed 
over the whole dense audience, which rose, cheer- 
ing frantically, and continued the applause for 
several minutes. ' ' 



WAE STORIES 75 



**THEY FACE A SOLID WALL!" 

Paul Erco of the Paris Journal says in a mes- 
sage from Fumes : 

'*It looks as if the Germans were out of ammu- 
nition. Yesterday we spotted several of their 
batteries along the Yser, and as soon as the 
French and Belgian guns opened fire they with- 
drew in a hurry, declining combat. 

''I asked one of General Joffre's ablest lieu- 
tenants if he thought the enemy meant to give up 
the Yser and Yperlee lines. His reply was : 

'^ 'For obvious reasons I can't tell you what I 
think on that point; but I will say that even if 
the Germans resume the struggle on our left wing 
they cannot break through. From the Lys to the 
sea they have a solid wall in front of them, which 
cannot be broken down and before which they will 
shatter themselves to' pieces if they try it.' *' 

* 

The late King Charles of Rumania left an es- 
tate of $10,000,000, of which $750,000 is be- 
queathed to the army and navy. The will states 
that the njoney be set apart for the purchase of 
quick-firing guns for the Rumanian army. 






A Frenchman suggests the value of protective 
armor against shrapnel. He says that metallic 
disks attached inside the cap, so as to afford al- 
most complete protection of the neck, back, and 
shoulders when soldiers are firing prone, would^ 
no doubt save seven or eight per cent, of the men. 
He cites the cases of two infantrymen who thus 
utilized zinc mess tins which showed numerous 
scratches where shrapnel had ricochetted and thus 



76 WAE STOEIES 

prevented wounds despite tlie feeble defensive 
qualities of the material. 

The British Government stopped the circula- 
tion of the Irish World of New York in Ireland 
because of its attitude against recruiting in Ire- 



land. * 

* * 



A Paris newspaper recently printed the fol- 
lowing : ^ ^ Now begins the twilight of the German 
gods. The Kaiser's expiation commences. It is 
not Napoleon vanquished by his own conquests ; it 
is not the eagle bowing his crest, but a wretched 
vulture with the stomach ache. In his sleepless 
nights, he must see, like Belshazzar's writing on 
the wall, the words: ^The despicable little army 
of General French ! ' " 



* * 



The tragedy of silence killed many of the 
women of Europe. Suicides occurred by thou- 
sands, especially in Austria. Women did not 
know whether their husbands and sons were alive 
or dead. They were given no news. Wherever 
they turned for light they were confronted by an 
impenetrable pall of silence. They were not per- 
mitted to dress in mourning, nor were the bodies 
of their dead brought home for burial. Insanity 
came to the relief of many. Thousands of others 
went to suicides' graves. 



^ 



The German army aviators discovered a 
method of making clouds to hide them when 
shelled by the French. A French officer was 
watching some German aeroplanes under fire 
when they suddenly disappeared into a cloud of 



WAR STOEIES 77 

brown smoke. In a few moments they became 
perfectly invisible. The French gnnners were nn- 
able to find them again. 



* * 



A former Edinburgh newsboy in the British 
army was awarded the Victoria Cross for captur- 
ing a machine gun, an officer, and six men. 

DEJECTED! 

A dispatch from Flanders to the London Daily 
Mail, referring to the condition of the Germans on 
the Yser, said : . 

**Nine hundred and ninety-one prisoners 
bagged in the fighting in the neighborhood of 
Ypres on December 2 came to my notice to-day. 
If these are a sample of the men left behind, then 
the German army in western Flanders is m a 
sorry state. They walked dejectedly and cursed 
the guards for hurrying them into anything more 
than a mile an hour. Altogether, they were as sad 
a crew as ever surrendered. 

''I saw some with boots without heels or soles 
and trousers which were rotten to the knees from 
the constant wetness of the dikeland. Many of 
the men had been indifferently fed for days, and 
many others had been for weeks fully dressed and 
had not been able to bathe in the filth-sodden 
trenches. One has to marvel at their endur- 



ance. ' * 



'^GUIDED BY HEAVEN." 



Copies of a proclamation which was to have 
been posted throughout Servia by the Austrians 
were received from Vienna. ''By the will of God, 
Who guides the destinies of peoples and the 
strength of his Majesty the Emperor Francis Jo- 
seph," it reads, ''your country had been subdued 



78 WAR STORIES 

by force of the arms of the Anstro-Hungarian 
army. You have submitted to a rule just and wise 
of the Gospodar, who sent us, not to avenge and 
punish, but to inaugurate a reign of truth and jus- 
tice. Trust in his clemency, trust in the soldiers, 
who love justice and are conscious of their duty. 
They will be a strong guard for your country 
which will protect you devotedly." 

DARING TOMMY. 

Five motor lorries of the British army Ord- 
nance Corps conveying ammunition were cut off 
by the Germans, and the men in charge to escape 
capture made off across country after blowing up 
the ammunition. One, however, refused to leave, 
and remained hidden in a wood at the side of the 
road. The Germans, finding the ammunition de- 
stroyed, went off, and as soon as the coast was 
clear the soldier who had remained hidden came 
out. Seeing the wheels of the lorries were intact, 
he managed to get one of the motors going, and, 
hitching the other four behind, he succeeded in 
bringing his convoy into camp. 

^^WE ARE WELL TREATED.'' 

A Frenchman from Normandy writes as fol- 
lows to his wife : 

**I must tell you that I am a prisoner of war. 
Chance, the great master of all things, willed it 
that our battalion was to be annihilated and that 
a few survivors, all uninjured, among them I, fall 
into the hands of the Germans. We were brought 

to P under guard. Don't worry about my 

fate, sweetheart. The Germans are treating us 
with extraordinary kindness; they look upon us 
as unfortunate enemies. We get our dinner — 



WAE STOKIES 79 

bread, coffee, apples, etc. — and when we have no 
tobacco they give us cigarettes. ' ' 

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST! 

The official investigations conducted at Vienna 
with reference to the claim that the Russians at 
Tomaszow placed civilians in front of their troops 
during the engagement there disclose the follow- 
ing: 

^^A battalion of the reserves under the direc- 
tion of a cavalry regiment was engaged in a rear- 
guard action while seeking to occupy certain po- 
sitions near Tomaszow. During the encounter the 
Russians drove the inhabitants of Tomaszow 
along the highways in front of them and directly 
in the path of the German fire. Among these were 
women and children. Similar action was taken by 
the Russians at Kipanen and Sendrowen, in East 
Prussia. Since strong masses of Russian troops 
in this manner approached our positions as close 
as 400 or 500 yards, we had to open fire. It was 
unavoidable that many of the innocent civilians 
thus had to be sacrificed. ' ' 

'^PILE DEAD YARD HIGH." 

An official Russian statement describes as ridic- 
ulous the German claims of having captured enor- 
mous numbers of prisoners, cannons, and machine 
guns. It says the armies have been fighting con- 
tinuously, and it is impossible to estimate the 
losses. 

**0n the other hand, the German denial that 
they have lost a single gun is disproved by the 
fact that in the Brzeziny district alone (near 
Lodz) we took twenty-three guns and a large 



80 WAR STOEIES 

amount of spoils. As to German prisoners, 10,000 
have passed one point alone of our front where 
prisoners are registered. 

^^ Neither do the Germans mention the supply 
columns which they burned, nor the cannon and 
ammunition which they abandoned and which we 
are gradually finding. 

^^The Germans also conceal the losses which 
they sustained in the November fighting, although 
witnesses state never has a field of battle pre- 
sented such a sight as on the roads of the German 
retreat toward Strykow — at some points where we 
attacked the German flanks the German dead were 
piled not less than a meter (over a yard) high.'' 

CAN'T CARE FOR WOUNDED. 

A letter received from a member of one of the 
foreign Red Cross missions in Servia paints a 
gloomy picture of conditions in Nish. 

The town was crowded with wounded, fresh 
batches were still pouring in, and here tobacco 
factories were being utilized for their reception. 
There was serious shortage of dressings and other 
appliances. At one hospital visited by the writer, 
the attendants were merely putting on bandages, 
the supply of proper dressings being exhausted. 

The number of surgeons and other workers, de- 
spite the arrival of foreign missions, was too 
small to deal with the enormous number of 
wounded. As a consequence, the work was tax- 
ing their powers to the utmost. 

The Servians were meeting their difficulties 
with the greatest courage and cheerfulness, but 
the situation was extremely grave, and further as- 
sistance in the shape of personal service, money, 
and stores was urgently required. 



WAR STORIES 81 

'* FORWARD, MY CHILDREN!'' 

According to a letter received recently by the 
parents of Lori G. Periard, a French infantry- 
man, when he wrote the letter on November 5, he 
was resting at Montrol, a village back of Tresne 
en Oise for two days after a twenty-fonr-hour 
shift at "advance work," the driving back of the 
Germans. 

''It is four o'clock in the afternoon," he writes.^ 
''We are at rest for two days in Montrol, a small" 
village a little back from Tresne, where has been 
fought the frightful battle of October 8, of which 
mayhap you have heard. I was in that battle. 

"There I saw my captain killed at my side as he 
shouted to us, ' Forward, my children ! Courage I' 
The poor one ! He was indeed one brave ! I saw 
my best friends killed beside me. Myself, I got 
but a spent bullet in my pocket. 

' ' Now we are advancing with caution. We take 
the advanced post every third day. That is to say 
this : We advance on Tresne, where the Germans 
are, with short dashes. 

"The Prussians are only 400 yards away from 
us. We sprint and fall fiat, and then we work all 
night to make some trenches to shelter us. The 
charges are always made at dark. In the morn- 
ing we relieve ourselves by crawling back, while 
other soldiers who have had sheltered positions 
crawl to relieve us. I say crawl, because if the 
Prussians should catch sight of us they would 
honor us with a fusillade en regie. ... 

"During the day we hide behind mbunds of 
earth which we throw up, and we fight foot for 
foot any attempt they make to advance. They do 
not like our cold steel, and many times v/e must 
give it to them." 



82 WAR STORIES 



ANOTHER RECORD SMASHED. 

The London Standard's Berlin correspondent 
says the Berlin Tagehlatt relates that in the 
Belgian village of Beveren 150 Bavarian soldiers 
who had taken part in the siege of Antwerp drank 
1,485 liters of beer within two hours. 

Each Bavarian soldier thus drank in round fig- 
ures nearly twenty pints within two hours. 

The Tagehlatt has no other comment than that 
it was satisfactory to find that Belgian beer was 
fit for Bavarian consumption. 

YOUNG GERMANY. 

Heinz Skrohn, who attends the public school at 
Prussian Battau, near Neukuhren, sent the fol- 
lowing letter of congratulation, which the Berlin 
Tagehlatt publishes, to General von Hindenburg 
on the occasion of his birthday anniversary : 

*^Deak Geit. von Hindenbukg: I read in the 
paper that October 2 is the anniversary of your 
birthday. The public school of Battau, Fisch- 
hausen county, sends its heartiest congratulations 
and hopes that you will continue to give the Rus- 
sians a good thrashing. We very often play sol- 
dier, but nobody wants to be the Russ, saying that 
as such they get beaten up too much. I am also 
sending you a picture in this letter showing us 
lined up as soldiers. I am the leader, and have 
the Iron Cross on my chest. On another picture 
the girls are seen knitting socks for the soldiers. 
I would also like to have your picture, but a big 
one, please. We want to hang it up in our class- 
room alongside of the Kaiser's picture. When a 
few days ago the Russians were coming nearer 



WAR STORIES 83 

and nearer to Koenigsberg many people here be^ 
came alarmed and moved away. We, however, 
stayed at home and went to school every day. 
Our teacher here tells us every day what happens 
in the war. We had a big celebration here after 
the battle of Tannenberg. We got all the flags 
together and marched through the village. We 
boys would like to go to war, too, but are too small 
yet. I am only twelve years old. Please write me 
that you got the letter. If you have no time your- 
self, have somebody else write. The boys here 
are very anxious to know whether I will get a 
reply. 

**Now, good luck once more to jou and health 
from all the boys of the public school of Prussian 
Battau, especially from the captain. 

* ^ Heinz Skeohit. ' ' 

The following reply was received by Heinz in 
due time : 

^^Dear Heinz: His Excellency Major General 
von Hindenburg wishes me to thank you very 
much for your letter and the pictures. His Ex- 
cellency will have a picture sent to you, and hopes 
that you will always be industrious boys, despite 
the war. Caemmerer, 

' ^ Captain and Adjutant, ' ' 

THE INVISIBLE FOE. 

A visit to the French trenches in Flanders, un- 
der the auspices of the French General Staff, is 
here described : 

Standing in the shelter of a wonderfully in- 
genious and deep-dug trench on what undoubtedly 
is the bloodiest battlefield in European history, 
the most notable impression is one of utter sur- 



84 WAR STORIES 



prise at the absence of movement and tlie lack of 
noise. 

Within one 's range of vision, with a strong field 
glass, there are probably concealed not fewer 
than 100,000 men, yet except for the few French 
soldiers with rifles in their hands standing or 
kneeling in the immediate vicinity and keenly 
peering over the flat land tov/ard the positions 
held by the Germans, no hnman presence was no- 
ticeable. 

A staff officer said that behind a slight slope 300 
yards away many German guns were hidden, but 
only an occasional burst of flame and a sharp 
whirring sound coming from an indefinite point 
told of this artillery. 

A little forest to the left bristles with machine 
guns backed by infantry in rifle pits and covered 
trenches. The approach to these positions has | 
been made almost impossible by barbed-wire en- 
tanglements strewn with brush and branches of 
trees and having the appearance of a copse of 
heather. '% 

British, French, and Belgian troops are greeted 
with cheers by the people as they march from 
spells of duty in the trenches to the villages in the 
rear. These men are jaded and worn. They stay 
in the trenches for days at a time and are con- 
stantly under artillery fire as well as being sub- 
jected to infantry attacks. 

As one group goes back to rest, another moves 
forward to take its place, and the men going into 
action cheer those who are retiring. 

TRAITOR MAYOR SHOT. 

A British officer writes home from the front 
remarking on the curious avoidance by the Ger- 



WAR STORIES 85 

mans, at first, of shelling the town hall at Ypres. 

*^Some suspicions were aroused by it,'' he 
writes, *^and the place was searched. In the 
vaults underneath it, which are of very great ex- 
tent, was found an enormous quantity of German 
stores and ammunition sufficient to last them a 
month and serve as a depot for their attack oia. 
Calais. 

*Mt had been put there with the connivance of 
the Mayor at the time the Germans were in occu- 
pation. This explains their desperate efforts to 
capture the town again. The traitor Mayor was 
shot. Immediately afterward the Germans 
shelled the place and smashed up the building and 
set it on fire. ' ' 

HE WON'T GET HURT. 

A British prisoner of war named Lonsdale, con- 
fined in the Doeberitz Camp, has been condemned 
by a German court-martial to ten years ' imprison- 
ment for striking one of his custodians. 

The incident is thus described by the LoJcal An- 
zeiger: ''When the occupants of one of the tents 
in the camp failed to turn out for work, a group 
of reservists in charge of the camp were ordered 
to drive them out. Lonsdale struck one of the 
German soldiers. A sergeant major drew his 
sword and hit Lonsdale several blows on the back. 

*'At the trial the president of the court-martial 
told witnesses to speak the truth and not to be 
influenced by hatred of the English. ' ' 

REAL LUXURIES. 

The way in which the Russian soldiers will risk 
their lives for comparatively small luxuries is evi- 
denced by the following story : 



86 WAR STOEIES 

During the fighting in East Prussia, a corporal 
asked permission to take a couple of his comrades 
and try to surprise one of the German scouting 
patrols. When he returned and reported that his 
effort had been successful, his officer asked him 
why he volunteered for such risky work. The cor- 
poral replied that the previous night a friend had 
relieved a German officer of a good supply of 
chocolate and a flask of brandy, and he wanted to 
^Hry his luck,'' too. 

* * And what did you get ? ' ' asked the officer. 

The corporal grinned and showed two cakes ol 
milk chocolate and five cigars. 

THE GRATEFUL PRINCE. 

A letter from Prince Joachim, the Kaiser's 
youngest son, who was recently wounded in action 
against the Russians in the East, to a non-com- 
missioned officer who rendered first aid to him, 
was given out here by the German Information 
Service last night as follows : 

^'My Dbab Coepokal: You surely must have 
thought me ungrateful for not having thanked you 
ere this for your kind aid. I would have done so 
long ago had it not been for my removal to Ber- 
lin. To-day the Empress read me your letter, 
which was a source of great joy to me and her 
Majesty. At the time when you rushed on with 
your company I did not find an opportunity to 
thank you for your faithful aid. I shall always be 
grateful to you for it. That was true comrade- 
ship. I trust you are in good health when this 
letter reaches you. Did Private Ewe get a new 
package of bandages f 1 have reproached myself 
for having taken his. And now farewell and re- 
member me to all the boys of the 83d, my Cassel 



WAE STOEIES 87 

friends, and tell them that I shall be back as soon 
as I am able to get on my feet again. Your thank- 
fnl comrade, Joachim, 

* * Prince of Prussia. ' ' 

'*T00 AWFUL TO DESCRIBE r* 

An eyewitness, a soldier who took part in that 
fearful siege, describes his impressions of the 
slaughter near Przemysl : 

^'The fury of the Russians' attack was shown 
by examination of the battlefield. The bodies of 
fallen Russians in the zone of our obstacles 
formed great piles many meters high. It was a' 
terrible sight. I was one of a squad accompany- 
ing the examining officers. It was too sickening 
to repeat. Those masses of dead and dying 
wounded men. The dead were not so terrible — 
so sad to me ! — as those wounded. 

^^It was the living — the writhing creatures, in 
that mass of humanity, causing the piles of flesh 
to quiver, as these helpless ones struggled feebly 
to escape. '' 

BRITISH AND BELGIAN KINGS MET BY 

ROADSIDE. 

A LONG HANDSHAKE THE FIEST GEEETING; THEN THEY 
DEOVE ACEOSS THE BELGIAN FEONTIEE. 

The London Daily Mail correspondent sends 
the following dispatch from Dunkirk, the date be- 
ing omitted : 

^ ' There was a historic incident on the roadside 
in Flanders to-day when King George met King 
Albert. The King of the Belgians, as the host^ 
was first at the rendezvous. He was dressed in 
his usual quiet uniform of dark blue. 



-88 WAR STORIES 

*^ As lie alighted from his motor and walked to- 
ward some old cottages here, he waited, and ex- 
changed kindly words with some Belgian soldiers 
who came out of a neighboring inn to touch their 
liats to their monarch. 

*^Noon struck from an old clock tower near at 
hand, and a moment later a motor cyclist flying 
the Union Jack was buzzing along the road to- 
ward . Behind were three black limousine 

cars, all flying Union Jacks, and behind them was 
a second motor cyclist. 

*^The cars and cyclists stopped, and from the 
first motor came King George and the Prince of 
"Wales with him. He wore a khaki uniform, with 
a scarlet band round his hat. He looked fit and 
well. 

'*The two kings moved forward with out- 
stretched hands to greet each other there in the 
muddy road with none but a few officers, a few 
soldiers, and simple villagers looking on. 
- ^^Upon a canal barge on the water alongside 
the road a woman was hanging out her washing 
on the mainmast and boom. All she saw was two 
men shaking hands, but there was quiet earnest- 
ness about that greeting. The handshake was 
long and firm, and the accompanying smiles like 
those of men who meet on serious occasions. 

^ * Their first talk was not long. After returning 
the salute of a soldier, who had come up close to 
look on, they entered King Albert 's motor car and 
passed on over the frontier into the little rem- 
nant of Belgium that still remains out of the en- 
emy's clutches. 

*^The two kings stayed a short time to review 
the troops, Belgian and others, drawn up in the 
village square, and then the monarchs drove on 
together to here. They dined and talked in 




WAR STORIES ^ 

friendly intimacy of the strange happenings ihs£ 
had befallen the kingdoms of both and of th« 
great fights that have been fought/' 



* * 



Fifteen hundred British men and officers are in 
the base hospital at Boulogne suffering from fro- 
zen feet. Fully one thousand of this number must 
have one or both feet severed, owing to the dead- 
ening of the nerves, which makes futile all at- 
tempts at treatment. Chilblains and frostbites 
have been depleting the ranks worse than bullets 
and shrapnel, and once a man's foot is frozen he 
is through, as far as fighting is concerned, for the 
rest of the war. ^ 



* * 



Says one British officer now in the hospital: 
'*From the time I arrived at the front, three 
weeks ago, until I arrived at the hospital last 
night, I have not been warm for one moment.'' 






While the men are away at the war, the Wom- 
en's Freedom League of London has formed a 
corps of policewomen for duty on the streets, at 
railway stations and in public parks. The women 
have organized under the nam^e of ''Women Po- 
lice Volunteers. ' ' ^ 



* * 



The throne of Egypt is going begging. Great 
Britain and the native government are finding it* 
impossible to induce any of the native princes to 
accept it. It is now proposed to make the coun- 
try a separate kingdom, independent of Turkey. 






One arms and ammunition company in this 



90 WAR STORIES 

country is erecting a million-dollar building to 
supply the demand for its products created by the 
European war. This company has a contract that 
calls for the manufacture of fifteen hundred rifles 
per day. 

Many of the Allied soldiers are in the hospitals 
^'wounded without wounds.'' They have been so 
dazed by the shock of exploding shells that it was 
deemed best to invalid them for a while. In some 
cases the shells destroy a man's memory. One 
corporal was brought in who remembered his 
name and the events preceding the war, but has 
utterly forgotten anything subsequent to the mo- 
bilization. He even refused to believe a story of 
his own heroism. 






The spy scare in London forced many innocent 
men out of the country. Adolph Boehm, who sold 
newspapers in Piccadilly for more than thirty 
years, was forced to flee unless he wished to stand 
trial for being a German spy. 

ROUGH ON THE PRISONERS. 

The Paris Temps correspondent describes a 
meeting near Soissons with a French infantry sol- 
dier who had just escaped from the Germans. 
They had forced him, he said, with fifty others 
captured at the same time, to dig trenches after 
shooting those refusing. The soldier said : 

^ '■ Under a French cannonade which killed many, 
we were compelled by blows to dig in the most ex- 
posed situation the trenches the Germans now 
occupy, which are very wide and deep and ce- 
mented against damp at frequent intervals. We 
received only one meal, at 11 P. M. We had no 



«■ 



WAR STORIES 91 

coverings and slept in the trenches. Finally, when 
my comrades were most all killed, I crept from 
one end of the trench and crawled 100 yards to a 
shell hole, where I spent the following day. Then 
I crawled 200 yards to the French trenches. 

**The Germans received food and munitions 
regularly, but seemed dispirited, and suffered 
from rheumatism greatly. The majority are mid- 
dle-aged. 

*^ During the last fortnight the Germans have 
withdrawn many guns, which were replaced with 
trunks of trees as barrels to deceive aviators, and 
some were even mounted on wheels. '^ 

HANDICAPPED. 

Passing a building in Glasgow where some of 
the IBelgian refugees were housed, two young girls 
were overheard arguing about the language of the 
guests, thus : 

^^A wish we'd been gettin' French this year; 
we'd been able tae speak tae the wee Belgians." 

'^They widna understand French, for A heard 
they speak Flemish.'' 

''Well, A heard the Belgians speak better 
French than they dae in France, just the same's 
we speak better English than they dae in Eng- 
land." 

PRINCE A FINE SOLDIER. 

The London Times military correspondent, giv- 
ing an account of the life led by the Prince of 
Wales at the front, says : 

"He won golden opinions. Personally of slight 
physique and almost fragile looking, the Prince 
was but little known to the army until he joined it, 
and now that he is becoming known it is a revela- 



92 WAE STORIES 

tion. He is among the keenest and hardest sol- 
diers in the army. He walks more than six miles 
before breakfast every morning, drives his own 
car and spends every moment of the working day 
in acquainting himself with the situation of the 
troops and the service of the army. 

*' Although nominally attached to Sir John 
French's staff, he is not chained there. He has 
been attached in turn to army corps, divisional 
and brigade headquarters and is undergoing an 
education which no books can ever give him. Only 
last week he occupied a house rocking and shaking 
day and night with the bombardment, and he has 
visited the trenches, including those of the Indian 
army. It will be difScult to keep hir^ out of the 
firing line of his grenadiers. 

*^ A more zealous and indefatigable young o^cer 
does not serve with the King's troops. He has a 
quiet, confident dignity which is most attractive 
and his character and intelligence arouse the en- 
thusiasm of all who meet him. It was not exactly 
the expression of a courtier, but it was the expres- 
sion of a truth, when an old soldier looked wist- 
fully after him and muttered, half to himself; 
* That 's a d d good boy ! ' " 



*'FOR YOUR LEETLE AMIE.'' 

But for the honesty of a British ^^ Tommy," 
says a Paris despatch, a famous French actress 
would have lost her satchel containing jewels val- 
ued at $25,000. She had dropped the satchel as 
she vv^as getting into a taxi, and the soldier, who 
was passing along, picked it up and restored it to 
her. 

So grateful was the actress that she took o'^f a 



WAR STORIES 



7 



Taluable ring from her finger and presented it to 
tte finder, saying: 

'^This ees for your leetle English amie." 



*„ 

^ w 



Bone grafting to save shattered limbs is being 
accomplished at Bordeaux by the Russian surgeon 
Woronoff, who experimented with Dr. Alexis Car- 
rel at the Rockefeller Institute in this city. Doc- 
tor Woronoff is replacing as much as seven and 
one-half inches of missing bone by transplanting 
monkey's bone to the wounded limb. He also em- 
ploys the bones of other men. 



# 



The latest charges against the British censor 
comes from Germany, where it is asserted that the 
censor deleted entirely the message sent by the 
Kaiser to the Queen of Spain at the death of her 
ferother. The message, the Germans declare, 
never reached its destination. 



*** 



In a raid sixty Cossacks captured three hundred 
German cavalrymen. The Cossacks were sent out 
to learn what was going on in Czenstochowa. 
They divided into sections and dashed into the 
sleeping town simultaneously. They killed a num- 
ber of Germans before they had time to crawl out 
of their blankets. Then they drove three hundred 
Germans ahead of them to their lines. When the 
prisoners were examined forty of them were 
found to be women dressed in soldiers' uniforms. 



* 



Japan has transported two hundred big Krupp 
gnns, together with the men and officers for hand- 



94 WAR STORIES 

ling the guns, over the Trans-Siberian Railway 
to the Russian front. For this service Japan is 
said to have been promised that half of the penin- 
sula of Saghalien which at the present belongs to 
Russia. These guns were purchased by Japan 
from Germany last year. 

The King of Saxony has joined the troops in 
Belgium. His presence greatly encourages the 
men. He is said to be taking the Kaiser's place 
while the latter is in East Prussia exhorting his 
warriors there. ^ 

When a wounded Belgian soldier was examined 
in the hospital a leather purse was found in his 
pocket and in it a bent and broken Belgian one- 
franc piece, part of which was missing. The purse 
itself was badly gashed by a bullet. The man's 
wound did not heal readily and the surgeon, prob- 
ing deeper into the man's thigh, found the miss- 
ing part of the coin imbedded near the bone. It 
was removed and the soldier speedily recovered. 

EVEN THE BUTLER! 

*'I have the honor to inforna you that I have 
enlisted in the 4th Queen's," wrote a butler re- 
signing his position with a wealthy Kent family 
by whom he had been employed for fifteen years. 
"I hope my leaving will not inconvenience you, 
but I feel that my obvious duty is to do my little 
share toward the defence of my King and country, 
especially as my work as an indoor servant is 
such as can be done — and in times like these I 
think should be done — by women. No single man 
with any patriotism can remain if he is able- 




WAR STORIES 95 

bodied and otherwise eligible to serv6 in the 
army, ' ' 

^^THEY ARE BRxWE MEN!" 

'^A Hindu belonging to a Lancer regiment to- 
day rebnked in my presence a man who spoke 
slightingly of the German people," cables a cor- 
respondent. ' ' With amazing dignity he said : 

'* ^Do not talk like that of the Germans. It is 
a great country ivhich can make war on five Pow- 
ers. They are brave men who can fight and die 
as the Germans do. The pity for them is that 
they are not so well trained as we. ' ' ' 

THOUGHT KIPLING SPY. 

How Rudyard Kipling narrowly escaped arrest 
on a charge of espionage is told in the following 
letter written by Cycle Sergeant Callis of the 
Fifth (Loyal North Lancashire) Territorials, now 
training at Sevenoaks : 

**Our battalion turned out in full marching or- 
der and proceeded to our usual practice ground, 
Knole Park. The cycle section marched in the 
rear of the column and an ordinary looking man 
came to me and asked me a lot of particulars 
about the battalion. He told me he had seen a lot 
of soldiering in his time and said he must confess 
our men struck him as being about the smartest 
on the march he had ever seen outside the regu- 
lars. 

"He asked me for so many particulars about 
them, and also about their billets, that I thought 
I should detain him as a sort of spy. 

"I excused myself and rode off to the head of 
the column and informed one of our majors as to 
the nature of the conversation, etc., and later took 
the man to said major. 



96 WAS STOEIES 

* ^ The officer stopped me to-day and laughingly 
asked me if I knew whom I had tried to put under 
arrest. I answered in the negative and he told me 
it was no less than Sudyard Kipling. ' ' 

KAISBS'S CONSCIENCE CLEAE. 

The Berlin Lohalanzeiger publishes the follow- 
ing description of the Kaiser by Sven Hedin : 

^ ' I had the happiness of speaking to the Kaiser 
in former years, and he has not altered. Latterly 
I have met him frequently, and I can only say that 
he has lost nothing of his freshness and elasticity. 
His appearance has not altered in the least, and 
yet every day he puts in twenty-four hours of 
work. Everything must be reported to him and 
he takes part in everything. 

^ ' I am often asked : ' How is the Kaiser able to 
bear this physical and mental strain f ' I think the 
correct answer is that he is able to bear it because 
his conscience is clear ; that he feels himself inno- 
cent before God and man of having caused this 
war and that he knows he has done everything in 
his power to prevent it. The Germanic cause can- 
not wish for any better representative than the 
Kaiser, and it would almost appear that he had 
been born for this crisis. For, just as he did all in 
his power to keep the peace, he feels now that he 
is responsible for the development of German 
destiny, and with this in view he devotes to the 
cause all his feelings, thoughts and acts.'^ 



( i 



A FEIGHTFUL HECATOMB.'' 



The disadvantage of having a sovereign who in- 
sists upon being his own generalissimo must have 
weighed heavily of late upon the German armies 
in the west. A French soldier engaged in the dis- 



WAE STOEIES ' 97 

trict just south of the Somme gives particulars, 
/athered from German prisoners, of the Kaiser's 
recent visit to his lines in this region. He says : 

^VTo prove their zeal in his presence the Ger- 
man officers increased their daily quota of about 
IGO shells for firing at the French to 3,000 in 
twenty-four hours. The next day the imperial 
traveller was ^ve miles south of Lihous, where 
the same ceremonial was organized for his recep- 
tion. There was a regular debauch of shells from 
cannon, .guns and mortars. There, again, the in- 
fantry showed little eagerness to attack us, but 
some blows and threats improved their sense of 
duty. 

* * There was a frightful hecatomb. They again 
tried to capture the villages of Dilrens and Ques- 
nayen Santerre on the following day, but, al- 
though encouraged by the presence of Emperor 
William, they failed ingloriously. One officer says 
500 German bodies already have been buried and 
many still are on the ground. ' ' 

WILL AVENGE BELGIUM. 

**Day and night the agony of Antwerp is pres- 
ent with me, ' ' said the Bishop of London, preach- 
ing at St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, ^'but if there be 
a God in heaven the wrongs of Belgium — abso- 
lutely innocent in this war — ^will one day be- 
avenged. 

^*For myself, when I have boys whom I love as 
my own sons killed every day, and my rooms filled 
daily with their sisters and their young widows, 
I feel that I should go mad but for my religion. 

*'It is hardly to be expected that Great Britain 
can feel charitably toward Germany, which has 
perpetrated diabolical acts of cruelty, but, never-^ 



'9S WAR STORIES 

theless, we mnst fight this war with Christian 
faith." 

HIDE DEAD FROM WOUNDED. 

A correspondent of the Nieuwe Rooterdamsche 
Courant tells an amazing story of how the Ger- 
man dead are disposed of at Quatricht, a little vil- 
lage in the neighborhood of Ghent. Every day 
people see hnge pits dug, and every night they 
hear the rumble of wagons, but they must not even 
peep from their houses. 

Each morning, however, shows fresh mounds 
of earth, and the people have come to the conclu- 
sion that bodies must be brought to the place of 
burial in tip wagons. 

The wounded are transported during the day 
so that they may not see the procession of the 
dead. 

CLOSE CALL IN THE CLOUDS. 

The story of a thrilling airship raid by French 
officers comes from Arras. 

The captain in command of the airship had re- 
ceived orders to try to destroy a railway junction 
where the Germans were conveying troops. The 
line was well guarded, and it was necessary to 
cross the enemy's position for a considerable 
distance. 

The airship started at dusk, without lights, and 
succeeded in crossing the German lines without 
being perceived. It soon located the junction and 
dropped in rapid succession three dynamite 
charges upon the station, with considerable dam- 
age to the tracks. 

The airship by that time had been discovered 
by the Germans' searchlights, and all the field 



WAR STORIES 99 

guns and mortars in the neighborliood were aimed 
at it. The sky was ablaze with bursting shells, 
some coming dangerously near. 

By throwing over all the available ballast, the 
airship's crew was enabled to rise rapidly. As a 
departing salute it attempted to drop a fourth 
charge of dynamite. 

Just then something went wrong which threat- 
ened the airship with instant destruction. The 
dynamite charge got stuck in the tube. 

The automatic detonator already had been set 
in motion. The captain seized a hatchet and 
climbed over the rigging. He struck a few des- 
perate blows at the tube, at the risk of his life, 
and released the charge, saving the airship. The 
dynamite exploded with a terrific detonation long 
before it reached the ground, with a burst of 
flames. 

CAPT. VON MULLER'S GALLANTRY. 

Another tribute to the gallantry of Capt. Von 
MuUer of the German cruiser Emden is contained 
in a letter received by a Glasgow woman from 
her son, a member of the crew of the steamship 
Kabinga. The letter says : 

^*The Emden captured the Kabinga in the Bay 
of Bengal, but when Capt. Von Muller learned 
that our skipper's wife and children were aboard 
he presented the ship to the lady, remarking to 
the skipper, ^You can inform your owners that as 
far as they are concerned the Kabmga has been 
seized and sunk.' " 

' ' BOMBARDMENT TERRIBLE V 

An ofiBcer in the pay department of the French 
army, writing from Ypres, says : 



n 



KX) WAR STOSIES 

**The town is being sprinkled with shells. In 
the earlier days of the attack only bombs from 
aeroplanes fell, but during the last forty-eight 
hours the town suffered from the attentions of big 
howitzers. 

*' Night before last a regular bombardment de- 
stroyed a score of houses and killed eight persons, 
of whom two were women. Up to now the shells 
have spared the wonderful city hall, but will this 
delightful Flemish city suffer after the manner 
of Arras 1 

**My letter has been interrupted by the bom- 
bardment, which is terrible. For two hours yes- 
terday evening nearly all the houses in our neigh- 
borhood were struck. Many are smashed. We 
sought refuge in the cellars of the Hotel de Viile, 
the only place capable of resisting the great shells. 

*' Profiting by a lull we went out in search of 
another shelter and found a vault under the ram- 
parts of the town. There we spent the night, 
huddled up with a hundred men, women and chil- 
dren. ' ' 

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. 

A mile and a half crawl with five bullets in his 
body under artillery and rifle fire was the experi- 
ence of Private Dan Hurst of the Coldstream 
Guards. Writing to his wife, Hurst says : 

*' Don't fret over me. I have ^ve wounds, but 
I am a lucky chap to be here to tell the tale, for if 
the shell which hit me in the chest had exploded 
a bit lower I should have been killed outright. 
Our ambulance men tried to get us away, but the 
Germans fired upon them, so they had to leave us 
to take our chances. It rained in torrents all that 
night and the Germans put sentries with bayonets 
orer us. They took all our food and water away. 



WAE STORIES 101 

and on Tuesday afternoon some of them tried to 
make out that we had been firing upon them. We 
asked how that was possible when they had taken 
everything from us, but they were going to shoot 
us when an officer came up and stopped them. 

/'On "Wednesday they removed us to the far 
side of a haystack out of their line of fire so we 
could not get hit, but one of the British shells ex- 
ploded near us, and of course I got hit. We 
thought it best to make a dash for it. I could not 
walk and had to crawl on my hands and knees 
with my wounds bleeding, and while I was crawl- 
ing away they started to fire on us. There were 
six of us who started but only two of us finished. 
Our trenches were only a mile and a half away, 
but it took us four hours and a half to crawl 
there. ' ' 

THE NEW WAR WEAPON. 

A French doctor, who has just returned from 
Flanders, describing the effect of the ''Fleche 
d'aero," as the steel darts with which the French 
airmen are supplied are generally called, said : 

''Among the 2,000 wounded whom we treated in 
forty-eight hours was a German who had been 
struck by an aeroplane dart. He was evidently 
bending over when hit, for the dart had entered 
the right thigh and traversed the whole leg, so 
that the point emerged just above the boot. The 
man was conscious when he was brought in, and 
said he felt no pain, only a heavy blow. He died 
soon afterward from shock and loss of blood." 

The darts resemble steel pencils. They are 
about ^Ye inches long with the unpointed end 
half -fluted to insure their falling head first. It is 
calculated that they strike with a hundred pounds 
force if thrown from an elevation of 1,000 metres. 



102 WAR STORIES 

CENSORING THE CENSOR. 

As threats and entreaties have proved equally 
vain against censorship the Paris Temps attacks 
it with ridicnle. Pierre Mille, one of the best 
known contributors, writes a column article, be- 
ginning : 

*^ Regarding the origin of the convulsion which 
is shaking Europe, together with the least known 
diplomatic secrets and the most concealed stra- 
tegic projects, I am going to make some most im- 
portant revelations.'' 

Before he can reveal anything here, however^ 
the censor intervenes with a four-line cut. He 
continues ; 

*^It will be remembered that Napoleon once 
cried before the Pyramids '' (Here is an- 
other slash.) 

The writer goes on : 

^ ' But we do not need the support of history or 
the remembrance of the victories won by Jeanne 
d'Arc at (name excised) or at Valmy by (another 

obliteration). One fact I will add " (Here 

follows a ten-line cut.) ^ 

He continues : 

*'His undaunted attitude at " (This time 

ten lines more disappear.) 

The article proceeds : 

' * She cried in a trembling voice, ' Oh daughter, 

cruel '(the woman's speech is all excised save 

the words ^the devourers fight among themselves,' 
although the passage appears to be taken from 
nothing more modern or harmful than a famous 
tragedy). 

The writer makes a last effort : 

^'The adversary's position was now very seri- 
ous. Throwing himself upon his knees, he cried^ 



WAR STORIES 10,^ 

'Our Father, which art ' (Even of the Lord's 

Prayer the censor allows only this beginning and 
the final ' Amen. ' ' ' ) 

^'HOCH DER CZAR!'' 

During a fortnight's sojourn with his armies in 
the field the Czar spoke to thousands of wounded, 
according to a Petrograd correspondent. His 
Majesty visited the Grermans and Austrians in 
field hospitals, addressing kindly words to them. 
In one ward, entirely occupied by wounded Ger- 
mans, the men, who were unable to rise, spon- 
taneously greeted the Czar with a three-fold 
Hoch! 

The Czar inquired about the identity and direc- 
tion of a column passing the imperial train. He 
was told they were officers and men recovered 
from wounds returning to their respective regi- 
ments. His Majesty alighted and asked where 
and how they had been wounded. It appeared 
they all had participated in the early battles of 
the war. They were anxious again to go to the 
firing line. 

A HOLOCAUST. 

A wounded English officer describes the follow- 
ing incident of the German attack between Dix- 
mude and Ypres : 

^'A German regiment with the flag flying ap- 
proached our trenches to about 300 yards. It was 
met by a heavy discharge of our machine guns 
and rifle fire, and fell back in disorder. Immedi- 
ately it reassembled some distance away. Once 
more we saw it advance, ^^^ith the ranks already 
thinner. It came to within 100 yards of us, when 
it was received as before and again beaten back. 

^'This time the order was sent through our 



104 WAE STOEIES 

trenches to let them come on to twenty yards. We 
did so; then the order to fire at will was given. 
Two-thirds of the regiment had already fallen in 
the first two attacks, and now the remainder was 
wiped out. Not one of the assailants got to onr 
trenches. ^ ' 

FIGHT WITH SHOVELS. 

Soldiers who have been fighting near Eoye say 
that the hostile trenches there are only fifteen 
yards apart at some points, so that the enemies 
can hear each other talking. Last week a com- 
pany of tappers were misled by the darkness right 
into a German trench, where a squad of Teuton 
sappers were at work. The men fought in the 
dark with picks and shovels until rifles also began 
to crack, whereupon each side drew back. 

French cemeteries, with their strong stone 
tombs, sometimes play an important part in the 
hostilities. Thus the Germans have intrenched 
themselves on a cemetery height near Eoye and 
have made it a strong position. The vaults offer 
a safe shelter against rain and shrapnel, while 
metallic coffins have been placed along the edge 
of the trenches as a protection against rifle fire. 

'^OUE LUCK WAS IN.'' 

A thrilling incident in the wonderful retreat of 
the British from Mons is described by Sapper 
Wells of the Eoyal Engineers, who passes lightly 
over his own part in an extraordinary act of hero- 
ism. 

**One of our officers asked for a man to go with 
him to blow up a bridge, so that the Germans 
could not follow us, and I went with him,'* says 
WeUs. 



WAE STOEIES 105 

'^Well, to blow a bridge up we use guncotton 
and a wire fuse. It is safe enough if you take 
your wire well away, but this time it would not 
work. Our men in running back had stepped on 
the wire, so we had to go nearer to the bridge and 
try again. Even then it would not act, so the offi- 
cer said to me, ^Get out of the way. Wells.* I 
said, ^ No, I *11 go with you. ' We were the only two 
on the bridge and the Germans were shooting at 
us, but our luck was in. Well, we both lay down 
and I fired ten rounds at the guncotton with my 
rifle, and he did the same with a pistol, but it 
wouldn't work. If it had we should have gone 
with it, so you see what a shave we had. We 
made a dive back and got some more guncotton, 
and were making to have another go when an offi- 
cer ordered us back, saying it was no use trying. * ' 

^^IN HONOR BOUND.'* 

A photographer in Southampton row showed 
outside his studio an apt comment on the war. 
Last September the Duke of Westminster and 
other British sportsmen sent round a circular let- 
ter asking for subscriptions to the Olympic games 
to be held in Berlin, and in the request were the 
following words: ^^In honor bound. Great Brit- 
ain must send a team to Berlin, and . . . this ob- 
ject can only be accomplished by efficient organi- 
zation and adequate financial support. ' ' 

The photographer has written below by way of 
comment: ^^The response to the above appeal 
lias been most successful. The money has been 
fomnd and the team, most thoroughly equipped, is 
BOW on its way to Berlin. Very little doubt exists 
thai all the prizes will fall into its arms. * * 



106 WAR STOEIES 

A HEROIC SACRIFICE. 

Correspondents of Finnisli newspapers report 
the heroic sacrifice of the crew of a picket boat in 
order to save a Russian cmiser, which was unwit- 
tingly approaching a mine in the Gulf of Finland. 

Realizing that it was too late to signal the dan- 
ger, the boat deliberately rushed at the mine at 
full speed. A terrific explosion followed. Six of 
the crew of seven perished. To the survivor, who 
was severely wounded, was awarded the decora- 
tion of St. George. 

A TERRIBLE BAYONET CHARGE. 

A dispatch to the London Times from Dunkirk^ 
France, said: 

^ ^ It may be admitted that the position at Ypres 
two days ago was serious. The town itself was 
bombarded by the Germans with great violence 
and under the fierce cannonading the Allies had 
to withdraw from the town, which became a 'No 
Man^s Land,' shells from both sides bursting 
across it. 

' ' The Germans made a final effort under cover 
of a fierce bombardment of the British positions. 
They had prepared a determined onslaught. 
Masses of men were launched in succession at 
chosen points on the allied front. The assault was 
met in a supreme way. 

''Two regiments, one Scottish and one of the 
Guards, went down with bayonets to stem the ad- 
vance. It was the most terrible bayonet charge 
of the whole war. It succeeded, the break in the 
line was repaired and the German attack was once 
more driven back. 

' ' That was their last effort. The Germans are 
now assailing the allied line at Arras, forty miles 



WAE STORIES 107 

further to the south, but not with the same fury 
as they exhibited in the onslaught of the past 
week. 

*^So fierce has been the fighting around Ypres 
that the casualties of the Germans are believed to 
have reached 100,000, though these figures may 
prove to have been exaggerated.'^ 

COLONEL AVENGED INSULT. 

'^At one time in Berlin I saw two British offi- 
cers guarded by twenty-four soldiers with fixed 
bayonets,'' writes a correspondent. '^One of the 
officers was an officer of some importance, I think 
a colonel, a tremendous man about 6 feet 4 inches 
in height, with iron-gray hair and mustache. His 
companion was a younger man, with a red band 
around his cap, denoting, I believe, he belonged 
to the General Staff. 

^*The prisoners were surrounded by the usual 
hooting, jeering crowd. Suddenly one of the 
guards deliberately prodded the big colonel in the 
back with the butt end . of his rifle. It was a 
brutal act. The next moment the gray -haired offi- 
cer turned around and struck his tormentor full 
in the face with his fist. It was a fine blow. 

^^I saw no more, for the crowd in a paroxysm of 
rage closed in on the group, surging here and 
there. I heard afterward both prisoners were 
handcuffed and led away. Their fate I do not 
know. ' ' 

WORK OF NEW AERIAL BOMB. 

The London Daily MaiVs Paris correspondent 
reports an interview with a French airman on the 
new French air bomb. 

I have used both the dynamite bomb and the 



a 



108 WAR STORIES 

new bomb, ' ' said tbe aviator. ^ ' The two are very 
similar in size and weight, bnt the effect as seen 
from above is very different. 

^^When a dynamite bomb falls npon a body of 
men you can see the bodies leap np in air. It is 
like a small volcano in action. When the new 
bomb bursts it simply lays everything out flat 
within the area of its explosion. It seems to exert 
the whole of its force in waves like the ripples 
made when a large stone is thrown into a pond. 
The men go down like ninepins ; buildings collapse 
like houses of playing cards ; guns are turned over 
as if by some unseen hand. 

^^The explosion raises practically no dust or 
smoke. Even the earth disturbed by the case of 
the bomb striking the ground is ilistantly flat- 
tened out by the same extraordinary waves of 
force. Extreme cold is produced at the moment 
of the explosion. It is so intense that I felt it 
myself when I dropped my first bomb at a height 
of about 800 feet. 

**I was taking great chances in flying so low, 
but I wished to see the effect of the bomb. It fell 
on a section of Germans bivouacking in a field. I 
estimate that at least thirty men were killed 
within the area of the explosion. Death from 
these bombs comes instantly from intense cold and 
concussion. ' ^ 

BRITON PRAISES GERMANS. 

The Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M. P. for South 
Somerset, a lieutenant in the Irish Guards, de- 
scribing his experience in North France, says : 

*^I was shot and was found by some German 
privates after about an hour and a half. 

**With other wounded men and of&cers I was 



WAR STORIES 10^ 

taken away to a house that had been converted 
into a temporary hospital after nightfall. We 
remained prisoners in the hands of the Germans 
for eleven days, until the French occupied the 
village where we lay and set us at liberty. 

*'It is only fair to say that both on the battle- 
field and subsequently we were all shown courtesy 
and great kindness by the Germans, from ail 
ranks, from Prussians and Bavarians alike.*' 

He adds that from the general behavior of the 
British troops ^^one might have supposed that 
they were engaged in autumn manoeuvres. ' ' 

NEARLY PUT ONE OVER. 

*^The Germans are full of resources,'* writes 
an English correspondent, ^^and it is one of their 
favorite plans to lure the allied troops on to at- 
tack them by various devices, of which an indi- 
cated intention of surrendering is the most com- 
mon. If this deception is successful, a skilfully 
concealed machine gun turns a murderous fire 
upon those who have advanced either to attack or 
to accept surrender. 

**The audacity of the enemy cannot better be 
illustrated than by a well- authenticated statement 
of what took place last night in a trench held by a 
Gurkha regiment. A figure, silhouetted by the 
moonlight and wearing a complete Gurkha uni- 
form, approached the end of the trench and deliv- 
ered the message. 

'^ ^The Gurkhas are to move further up the 
trench; another Gurkha contingent is advancing 
in support. ' 

^^ Puzzled by this announcement, the officer in 
command replied, *Who are you? Where do you 
come from?' to which the only answer was, 'You 



110 WAR STORIES 

are to move up and make room for other 
(Inrkhas. ' 

^ ' The English was good, but something excited 
the officer's suspicions. 

** * Answer, and answer quickly,' he said; *if 
you are a Gurkha, by what boat did you cross 1 ' 

**This question, under the circumstances, was 
no easy one to answer, and the German (for such 
he was) turned and fled, but he had not gone five 
yards before he fell, riddled with bullets. 

**If the officer had been deceived the trench, 
of course, would have swarmed with Germans al- 
most before the Gurkhas had made room for 
them. ' ' 

CLOSE CALL FOR AIRMAN. 

*^ Roland Garros had a narrow escape from 
death while engaged in an aerial duel with a Ger- 
man near Amiens, ' ' cables a correspondent. ^ ' His 
motor broke down and Garros made a corkscrew 
descent and feigned death, whereupon the German 
landed and approached. 

^^The Frenchman arose and shot the German 
dead with his revolver. He regained the French 
lines in the German aeroplane. 



?> 



FASTIDIOUS SANDY. 

News has come back to England of how the 
British soldiers taken prisoners are faring in 
Germany. There are 6,000 in a caserne at Da- 
boritz. 

Among them are some Highlanders. It's get- 
ting to be cold weather in Daboritz and a German 
officer, with the kindest of intentions, offered to 
provide them with trousers. 

The Scots were indignant and rejected the gift. 



WAR STORIES ' 111 

^*But why do you prefer petticoats f the Ger- 
man asked of one of the Highlanders. 

*^ Because they never bag at the knees, ' V replied 
Sandy. 

*^IS THIS THE KAISER? ^^ 

According to a despatch from Petrograd to the 
London Daily News, the Russian soldiers pursu- 
ing the Germans in western Galicia are bringing 
* ' captured Kaisers ' ^ into camp two or three times 
each day. 

It is the belief of the Czar's force that the war 
can be easily terminated by making a prisoner of 
Emperor William. For that reason nearly every 
German officer who wears a ^^ Kaiser'' mustache 
and is caught by the Russians is taken to head- 
quarters. ' ^ Is this he I " is the oft repeated query. 
The fact that the Kaiser is still at liberty has not 
dampened the enthusiasm of the Russians. 

^^SEND ON SOME MORE DISHES!" 

Appended to the French official communique 
recently was the following note : 

**The example of the German chiefs has influ- 
enced all the German troops to plunder systemati- 
cally everywhere in Belgium and France. A spe- 
cial train service is now admirably established to 
carry the chateau booty taken by the princes and 
lesser lords of the army back to Germany. The 
whole plunder service is well organized. 

'^A letter from Gettenau, Hesse, dated Oct. 8, to 
a landwehr trooper at Ste. Croix-aux-Mines shows 
the high development of the frenzy of plunder. It 
says : 

*^ *The shoes did not fit little Hermann. All 
the other things pleased us very much. We have 
no need to hide them or be secret about what you 



112 WAR STOEIES 

send us because others at the front have sent 
much more stuff than you. Among other things 
the French pots are very much appreciated. If 
you find more French dishes or ware send them 
along.' " 

A NEW FOE ENTERS. 

Winter begins officially in Russia with the clos- 
ing of navigation on the Neva, but already snow 
is lying on the ground on the western frontier, 
and in Poland there are severe frosts at night. 

A new touch of horror is introduced by the 
freezing of the ground, which makes it practically 
impossible to dig graves for the great number of 
dead in the woods, where recent floods washed the 
bodies from the shallow graves in which they had 
been hastily buried. 

The villagers report the presence of an unparal- 
leled number of wolves, and have petitioned the 
army authorities to detach soldiers to shoot them. 

The Germans are suffering intensely from the 
cold. In every town which "they occupied they 
carried off all the available winter clothing, furs, 
sheepskins and leather coats. At Lodi and Shira- 
dow, where there are great cloth factories, they 
commandeered the whole of the stocks and kept 
the plants working day and night providing ma- 
terials for export to Germany. They failed, how- 
ever, to bring away much of this owing to the de- 
struction of the railway bridges by Polish gueril- 
las, whose activities are acknowledged to have 
contributed to the Russian success. 

THE BRIGHTER SIDE. 

Life in the trenches appears by no means to be 
the irksome and dreadful thing it is reported ta 



WAE STOSIES 113 

be. According to soldiers just back in Paris from 
the firing line troops that are supposed to face 
each other grimly across a fire-swept space only 
a few hundred yards wide are not the bloodthirsty 
fellows we all took them for. 

They carry chivalry into their work, and cer- 
tain conventions, all making for comfort, have 
been tacitly established between them. For ex- 
ample, toward midday both sides suspend fire in 
order that they may eat luncheon in peace. They 
would undoubtedly oblige each other when the 
evening meal is due but for the unhappy fact that 
the dinner hours of the contending armies do not 
tally. 

Obviously, says a facetious Frenchman, it is 
somebody ^s duty to see that the meal hours of the 
opposing forces synchronize exactly. The sol- 
diers entertain each other with music, the trenches 
on either side furnishing items turn and turn 
about. 

HOW THE EUSSIANS PAY. 

**0h, yes, the Eussians pay for what they take,'^ 
exclaims the Koenigsberger Zeitung, and adds: 

**The inspector of a great farm, who was riding 
a fine horse, his saddle and bridle ornamented 
with silver, encountered a troop of Eussians. 

** 'We need that horse; dismount,' ordered the 
Eussian commander. 'But to prove to you that 
we Eussians are not so black as we are painted, I 
now pay you for the horse. ' 

^'So saying he handed a ruble (51.5 cents) to 
the inspector, who discovered later that the piece 
was coined in the eighteenth century and is not 
current now.'' 



114 WAE STORIES 

KAISER'S CLOSE CALL. 

Further details are now at hand of the Kaiser's 
narrow escape from death from bombs thrown by 
an airman attached to the allied army occupying 
the line from Nieuport to Ypres for five days. 
The Emperor was present at the operations on 
that front, and it was because of his presence that 
the enemy made such persistent and vigorous at- 
tacks on the Allies, regardless of the enormous 
sacrifice of life. 

The Kaiser, with some of his aides, arrived by 
motor car at a tavern at Thielt about 5 p. m. 
Apartments had been reserved for the Emperor. 
Dinner was ready and his personal baggage had 
already been deposited in the bedroom prepared 
for him. He was in a hurry and did not dress for 
dinner, but immediately sat down to dine. 

After the meal, instead of going to his room, he 
hurriedly left the tavern with two of his aides. 
He motored to the other end of the town, where 
fresh rooms were engaged. Twenty minutes after 
the Kaiser left the first tavern six bombs fell upon 
the building and the room where his baggage lay 
was destroyed. Two of his aides, who had re- 
mained in the tavern, were killed and the motor 
car in the yard wrecked. 

EXTRA! RUSSIA GOES DRY! 

The official bulletin of the Prefect of Petrograd 
published another addition to the prohibition of 
the sale of alcoholic drinks. Up to that date 
restaurants of the first class had the privilege of 
selling vodka and all other spirituous liquors in 
unlimited quantities. It was thought these estab- 
lishments would only provide for the wealthier 
classes, and there was no danger of the common 



WAR STOEIES 115 

people being able to secure strong drink. It 
seems, however, that habitual topers even of the 
lower classes arrayed themselves in clothes finer 
than they had ever worn before in their lives and, 
putting up a bold front, have entered first class 
restaurants and got what they wanted. 

The story goes that hatters and milliners had 
been doing a rushing business selling bowler hats 
to men and women who hitherto had worn caps 
and shawls. A bowler on a man and a hat on a 
woman being in Russia a mark of superiority, if 
not of intelligence, there was no ban on cham- 
pagne for the wearers. 

This reached the ears of the commander-in- 
chief of the army, who has absolute powers. He 
accordingly instructed prefects of police through- 
out Russia to prohibit the sale of vodka and 
strong drink of every description, even in first- 
class restaurants. 

^^HE IS NOT A PRIEST!'' 

The following story illustrates the versatility of 
German spies : A French battalion had just en- 
tered a village which for some time previously 
had been occupied by the Germans. The place 
had been pillaged and devastated, the inhabitants 
had fled, but the church and priest's house were 
still intact. The aged cure came forth to greet 
the soldiers with open arms. 

That evening officers invited the venerable 
cleric to dinner, and, as a matter of course, they 
invited him to say grace. 

As he murmured a Latin prayer one officer, a 
lieutenant, became strangely interested. He be- 
came absolutely astonished as the priest went on. 
The lieutenant whispered to the colonel, and be- 



116 WAR STORIES 

fore tlie company had qnite realized what was 
happening, four men with fixed hayonets had 
ranged themselves behind the cure. 

'*That man has never been a priest/' exclaimed 
the officer. 

Forthwith the man was searched. He was a 
German spy and had disguised himself as a priest 
in the deserted village. The real pastor was a 
hostage. 

THOUGHT SHELLS FIREWORKS. 

The London Morning Post prints an extract 
from a letter of a cavalry officer, giving an ac- 
count of how the Indian troops behaved in their 
first encounter with shell fire. Although a cav- 
alry officer, the writer was serving in the trenches. 
In his letter, written from Belgium, he says : 

^* Night before last we were told that the regi- 
ment was going to be relieved by the Indians. I 
was delighted till I heard that my troops were to 
stay out to give them moral support, as it was 
their first go — a compliment, I suppose, although 
I didn't think so at the time. It was the most 
weird sight IVe ever seen. 

* * There were six farms and a windmill blazing, 
all set alight by shell fire, when these fellows with 
turbans and with flashing eyes and teeth came up 
out of the darkness. The undefeated dragoons, of 
course, became firm friends with them at once. 
French, Belgians, Indians — they make pals with 
them all. 

**Well, these natives had hardly got into the 
trenches on either side of me when the Germans 
opened fire. It was the worst half hour IVe ever 
spent. As, of course, I couldn't make them under- 
stand and as they had never seen shells before I 



, WAR STORIES 117 

didn't know what they would do. They behaved 
splendidly, and I think they thought the shells 
were fireworks let off for their benefit. 

*'The officer in charge of them told me that 
morning that he was most frightfully anxious as 
to how they'd do, but they shouted with glee when 
they saw a German and let him know what good 
shots they are. In the middle of the attack one 
native hurled himself into my trench and spoke 
excitedly to me. Of course, I couldn't make out 
what he wanted, but thought he wanted a doctor 
for some one, as he kept pointing at a cartridge, 
so I sent down for him, but when he arrived I dis^ 
covered it was more ammunition they wanted and 
not the doctor. " 

'^YOU ARE AN ANGEL!" 

A vivacious English woman, the wife of a very 
well known officer bearing a famous name, re- 
turned over the border into Holland, after an ad- 
venturous day's tour behind the German lines. 

"I made up my mind to see for myself what 
was going on," she said, ^^so I disguised myself 
as a Flemish peasant woman, with the assistance 
of the national costume — earrings, headdress, and 
everything complete, down to the very shoes — 
stained my face brown with a concoction of strong 
coffee, borrowed a pair of spectacles and a market 
basket and set off across country on foot. 

^^On my way out of town I met a German sol- 
dier with his arm and hand dreadfully shattered. 
His bandages had slipped and he was trying 
vainly to replace them. I helped him redress his 
nasty wounds and rebandaged them with a pocket 
bandage I happened to have with me. The soldier 
fumbled in his pocket, and at last produced a 



118 WAR STORIES 

crumpled five-franc note which he offered me. I 
refused it. 

<* *Why do you refuse good money for a good 
action, madame I ' he said. 

** * Because I am an English woman/ I replied, 
*and English women do not take payment for 
good deeds, however great or small they may be. ^ 

*^ *I cannot believe you are English,' he said, 
^but you are an angel, and angels have no na- 
tionality. May I kiss your hand?' 

**I held out my hand. He bent low and kissed 
it. There were tears in his eyes, and I rather 
wish now I had accepted the five-franc note to 
keep as a souvenir of JPrussian gratitude,'' 

KILLS 40 FOR SINGING. 

^ ^ Among the wounded was a young Frenchman 
^th a gold medal about which he refused to speak, 
and a slight wound in the foot about which he 
made considerable fuss," cables a correspondent. 
*' Disgusted by these complaints among so much 
suffering silently borne, my informant elicited 
from the youth's comrades the following story, 
■which subsequently was verified : 

^*At a point where the French trenches were 
barely fifty yards from the enemy's a party of 
Germans sang songs during the night which in- 
furiated the French — ^They wouldn't let us sleep 
wdth their howling,' as one of the French soldiers 
put it. Finally one little chasseur, crying, 'I will 
silence them,' seized a rifle and disappeared be- 
fore any one could detain him. 

^* After a moment's silence came the crackle of 
rapid firing, followed by German shrieks and wild 
Tolleys. The firing continued, accompanied by 
shouts in French as from an officer directing an 



WAR STORIES 119 

attack; then in guttural tones: 'Stop! Stop! 
We surrender.' A few minutes later the little 
chasseur reappeared escorting several unarmed 
Germans. He said: *You can occupy the trench; 
there's nothing but corpses left to defend it.' 

*' Advancing, the French discovered forty dead 
Germans in the trench, killed by the little chas- 
seur, firing from the end, whither he had crawled 
unnoticed. In some cases the same bullet pierced 
several Germans." 



RUSSIAN AIRMAN'S RUSE. 

The story of the strategy of a Russian aviator 
which got him out of a tight corner, is cabled from 
Petrograd : 

A Russian airman accompanied by an observa- 
tion officer was flying over the enemy's territory 
when he was obliged to descend owing to engine 
trouble. The pilot and the officer were wearing- 
leather clothes without any distinctive mark. 

They were working on the motor when sud- 
denly seven Austrian soldiers in charge of an 
under officer appeared over the crest of a little 
hill and approached them. 

Resistance was impossible, for the Russians 
had no weapons but revolvers. Fortunately the 
officer knew German. Calling loudly to the Aus- 
trian officer he ordered him in a peremptory man- 
ner to come and help him mend the motor. The 
Austrian, believing he was in the presence of a 
superior officer, hastened with his men to obey^ 
and soon the engine had been put right. 

The aeroplane started off, and as it ascended 
in spirals to the clouds a paper fell at the feet of 
the gaping Austrians. It contained a short mes- 



120 WAE STOEIES 

sage of thanks to the officer and his men for giv- 
ing such timely aid to Eussian aviators. 

^^IT IS LOVELY HEEE!^' 

The Earl of Kingston, who is an officer in the 
Irish Guards, in a letter to his wife at Kildonin 
Castle, County Eoscommon, from France, says : 

* ^ We had a bad night last night in the trenches, 
as we are only 800 yards from the Germans, and 
both sides are as jumpy as fleas, loosing off at any 
itnoment, and the guns are keeping up a terrific 
fire on us, but doing little damage. We had two 
MUed and two wounded yesterday. 

'*They have a large gun here that was meant 
for the siege of Paris. It throws a shell thirty- 
two inches long and makes a hole big enough to 
bury eighteen men in. This battle has been on 
for ten days and we hope for the best. 

^ * We have a farm here that has been taken and 
retaken, but we have it again at present. It is 
lovely at night, with hundreds of shells bursting 
all around, and if it were not for the death they 
l)ring they might be fireworks on a large scale. 

^'I have lost my servant and all my kit. Please 
^end me out some cigarettes, tobacco and 
snatches. ^ ' 

THEY TOOK HIS SHOE. 

One of the British flying corps, Lieut. Eainey, 
crossed the Channel from France in a much dam- 
aged machine, thus completing "in a fitting manner 
a series of thrilling adventures which have be- 
fallen him since he last left English soil. 

Lieut. Eainey had been engaged for three weeks 
in reconnoitring at the front, and so little leisure 
Jiad he been able to snatch that, as he told his 



WAR STORIES 121 

friends here, in the whole of that time he could 
not remove his clothes, or even get a wash. 

He had two machines disabled by rifle and shell 
fire, v/hile a third caught fire in midair. On each 
of these occasions he very narrowly escaped los- 
ing his life. 

Once when he came down he was so exhausted 
that he lay with his head on his aeroplane and 
fell fast asleep. On waking he was astonished to 
find that the puttee, boot and sock of one leg had 
been removed by some one who, as the lieutenant 
himself suggested, took the opportunity of his 
slumber to get them as mementoes. 

Lieut. Rainey brought home with him a German 
helmet belonging to a man he shot, and he proudly 
asserted it was the first trophy of the kind taken 
by a British airman. 

^^ SOLDIERS BECOMING RARE.'' 

An official communication issued by the French 
"War Office said : 

* * The following are extracts from a letter found 
on a German prisoner, dated Dusseldorf , Oct. 4 : 

* * * With us officers and soldiers are becoming 
rare. We have no more men than are adequate. 
Volunteers and men of the Landwehr are all we 
have to-day. If you saw these soldiers you would 
turn your head. 

*^ * Everybody is being taken. It is Germany's 
last hope. , All the aged men are becoming sol- 
diers. 

* * * Have you bread ? Many complain they have 



none.' " 



985 SHELLS KILL 2 HORSES. 

The Paris La Liberte's war correspondent says 
60 per cent, of the German shells fail to explode ; 



122 WAR STOEIES 

985 shells fell on a single battery, killing only two 
horses. 

The extent of invisible fighting in the war is 
shown by the revelation of an artilleryman now 
resting with his regiment. He entered the battle 
line at the beginning of the war and after ten 
weeks of continuous fighting has not seen a single 
German. 

KILLED FOR INSULT TO WOMAN. 

Proof that high German oflScers will not tolerate 
insults to women by their men is furnished in the 
following cable from a correspondent in Antwerp : 

' ' Gen. von Beseler is a pleasant-looking old gen- 
tleman with a white mustache. He conducted him- 
self most correctly toward every one in the hotel. 
On the other hand, one of his junior officers im- 
mediately asked for a hot bath and m.ade exacting 
demands, culminating in a gross insult to the 
chambermaid. For this he was severely repri- 
manded by Von Beseler, who told the girl, patting 
her kindly on the shoulder, to report to him at 
once any further annoyance. 

^^A drunken soldier grossly insulted a poor 
woman on the street. She complained to an offi- 
cer, who at once emptied a revolver into the 
offender's body, killing him. This had a salutary 
effect on the attitude of the troops toward the 
female population, for I heard of no similar out- 



rage. * ' 



SOME FEE! 



A fee of $35,000 was paid to a French surgeon 
of Epernay for operating on the wounded German 
Crown Prince. There was a certain retributive 
justice on the size of the fee, for $35,000 was the 



WAR STORIES 123 

precise amount the Grermans demanded as a war 
contribution from Epernay. 

During the battling on the Marne the Crown 
Prince was seriously wounded. No German sur- 
geon was in Epernay, so the Germans asked a 
well-known Paris surgeon, Dr. Veron, to operate, 
telling him they would pay any fee. Dr. Veron 
fixed the fee at an amount equal to the enforced 
war contribution, and that sum the German army 
treasurer paid in gold. 

CALLS FOE TREACHEROUS. 

In a letter written to relatives in London Cor- 
poral N. Hastings of the Guards accuses the Ger- 
mans of treachery. He writes : 

^*If the papers were permitted to send their 
correspondents to the front they would have some- 
thing to say which would open the eyes of the 
world about the Germans. It is an insult to Zulus 
to compare these squareheads to them for treach- 
ery. Some of them fight fair and square, but 
there are thousands of them who are devoid of all 
human feeling. Near the banks of the River 
Aisne they had been attacked and driven down by 
rifles and machine guns. A small number of the 
Northamptons were in a trench when 400 or 500 
of the Germans held their hands up. The ^Cob- 
blers ' were ordered not to fire, and an officer asked 
in French and English if they surrendered. 

^^They came on in skulking manner and some 
of them threw down their rifles. In every way 
they showed they were giving themselves up as 
prisoners. The ^Cobblers' were priding them- 
selves on the capture and the officer said, ^We 
have a haul here,' as they got near the trench. 
When they were three or four yards away they 



124 WAR STORIES 

poured a murderous fire at the poor fellows. They 
had not a dog's chance and nearly all were 
knocked over. The devils then tried to get back 
and ran for their lives, but our battalion was soon 
after them. Before they got many yards a ma- 
chine gun ripped them up and scores of them 
rolled over. Some of them got away, but our bat- 
talion got them in the rear. Our lads were simply 
furious at such treachery. 

*^I had a narrow shave as I fell over one of 
their wounded, and before I could get up again a 
bullet whizzed through the sleeve of my coat, but 
he who fired was shot through the head the next 
second. Some of the German officers are low 
bred. They are not like ours — gentlemen — and 
when they get a chance they gorge themselves and 
get mad drunk, so what can you expect from their 
men? I have spoken to several prisoners — one 
seemed a decent chap and spoke English well, 
having worked in London — and they admit it. 
The one who spoke English was a sergeant and he 
said his officers were perfectly mad because they 
were unable to get into Paris. 



7} 



HOW HE WON THE V. C. 

The story of how the first recommendation for 
the Victoria Cross was won in the present war is 
told in two letters. The first is from the hero 
himself, an English soldier named Dobson, to his 
wife in North Shields. He says very modestly : ^ 

**You will know by the time you receive this 
letter that I have been recommended for the Vie- 
toria Cross, an honor I never thought would come 
my way. I only took my chance and did my duty 
to save my comrades. It was really nothing.'' 

The second letter is by Lady Mildred Follet, 



,WAR STOEIES 125 

wkose husband commands the company to which 
Dobson belongs, and is addressed to Mrs. Dobson. 
It reads : 

^^ You will be glad to know that your husband is 
very well and has behaved with very great gal- 
lantry. Capt. Follet says: 'A thick fog came 
down, so I sent three men out 100 yards to our 
front to give warning of an attack by the enemy. 
After they had been there an hour the fog sud- 
denly lifted and they were fired on at close range. 
One man was killed, one badly wounded and one 
crawled back. I didn't know how to get the 
wounded man back, so I called for a volunteer, 
amd Eeservist Dobson at once responded and went 
out to fetch him. He was heavily fired at but not 
kit.' '' 



The Bisr Furor 



in books on the subject of war has been o'eated b/ 

GERMANY 

AND THE NEAT WAR 

BY CHNERAL P. VON BBRNHARDI 

This book presents a clear exposition of the 
German attitude in the European War, and pre- 
dicts with remarkable accuracy the plan of cam- 
paign of the German Army in their attacks on 
Belgium and France. General Bernhardi claims 
that England is stationary or retrogressive in the 
world's progress, that Germany is the coming 
world power, who by her rise will elevate the 
world's standard of civilization, art and commerce; 
that Germany's rise is in fact civilization's 
greatest asset* 

The coolness with which the author assumes 
his views to be true, without argument or evi- 
dence, takes one's breath away. 

War all around is considered with compo- 
sure: war with England; France overthrown; 
Belgium conquered; and the balance of power in 
Europe to be deliberately destroyed. The two 
chapters on the inevitable naval war with England 
are of great interest. 

The book is a 12 mo., contains 288 pages 
printed from new large type and is bound in sub- 
stantial paper coven Price, 25 cents postpaid. 

J* 8. OGILVTE jPVBLISHINa COMPAIST 
' 67 M08B 8TBEET9 NEW YOMK CITY 



THE WAR 

is the big thing in the public eye and mind today. 
It occupies all of the prominent space in news- 
papers and magazines everywhere, and will as long 
as it lasts; and for a number of years afterward liter- 
ature, art and sculpture will show the war's effects bt 
their general treatment. 

We have just issued the 

Best Stories of the 
European War 

RECEIVED FROM ALL SOURCES 

Correspondents at the front or marooned in ob- 
scure places while the great conflict rages, manage 
daily to get through the wary censors some little 
grimly humorous, or tragic side-lights of the war. 
These we have collected into book form illustrated 
with some unusual war photographs. 

The book contains 128 pages paper bound, illus- 
trated. 

Price, sent by mail postpaid, 25 cents. 



J. S. OQILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
57 Rose Street, New York 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 
AND THE WAR 

By ERNEST LUDWIG 

I. & R. Consul for Austria-Hungary, in Cleveland, Ohio, 
with preface by his excellency 

DR. KONSTANTIN THEODOR DUMBA 
Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the United States 

This book contains a comprehensive presentation 
of the political forces and historical developments 
which led to the initial . clash of arms. It offers a 
graphic description of conditions in Bosnia and Her- 
zegovina, the two Austrian provinces coveted by 
Servia, and throws an illuminating light upon the 
real, the underlying causes of the world-conflict. 

It gives detailed particulars of the Serajevo trial 
in which the assassination of the Crown Prince and 
his consort is proved to have been committed by 
members of the notorious "Narodna Odbrana" society 
of Servia, with the guilty fore-knowledge and com- 
plicity of the Servian Government and tells why 
Servia's equivocal note regarding this was not accept- 
able, making necessary from the Austro-Hungarian 
standpoint, the declaration of war against Seryia 
which brought on the present European Conflict. 

The chapter on the greater Russian propaganda 
is based on confidential and official reports, now made 
known for the first time. 

The chapter dealing with economic conditions in 
Austria-Hungary contains entirely new facts, official 
and authentic. 

The book contains 220 pages, size 7 1-2 x 5 
inches, substantially bound in cloth. PRICE, ONE 
DOLLAR, net; postage 10 cents additional. 

J. S. OaiLYIE PUBLISHINa COMPAFST. 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




021 547 902 A 



Stories and Letters 
From The Trenches 



^M 



J 



Stories and L 
From the Trenctte^ 

The Most Intense Human 

Interest in the European War is 
concerning what those at the front 
who are doing the actual fighting, 
think of the conflict, and what 
they experience in the way of 
hardships and the unusual adven- 
tures which show the caHbre and 
character of the contestai ts. 

This is vividly depicted in our 
book published under the above 
title, containing letters received 
from soldiers in the field describ- 
ing many features of the various 
campaigns, the descriptions coming from representatives 
of widely differing classes of society. They include 
missives penned or scribbled by nobles and members of 
the royal families, high military officials, Socialists, 
tradesmen, skilled workmen, and writers who, in peace 
times, have been more expert with the farmhand's sc^ the 
or manure fork, or with the street cleaner's broom than 
with the pen that is supposed y mightier, and certain ly 
to them more unwieldy, than the sword. 

Some of the greatest present-day poets and novelists 
are in the field, and that, too, serving in humble capaci- 
ties, taking their risks side by side with the men in the 
ranks or as non-commissioned officers and sharing the 
daily routine of the common soldier's life. 

In the letters written by high and low alike, there is 

to be noted a certain theatrical consciousness of the stage 

on which is being fought the greatest battles of history. 

The book contains 120 pages, printed from new large 

type, illustrated and bound m paper covers. 

For sale by booksellers e very whc^e^oic. jj;. will be sent by mail postpaid 
to any address on receipt of PRICE 25 CENTS. 

J. S. OaiLVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
P. 0. Box 767. 67 ROSE STREET, NEW YORK. 



